A Day In The Life

This is the start of a reoccuring post. I entertained this idea yesterday and thought what better way to recount my many many MANY memories of my childhood. Most of my memories will be funny/hilarious/embarassing as I retell of our white trash roots. But I'll throw in few "warm fuzzy" moments too. Not only is this a way for me to get sympathy (and free therapy) for the pain/embarassment my parents put us through all of our lives, but it's a way to make up for all those non-journaling years (ok probably 93% of my life). So here goes numero uno....enjoy!!

Technically this one involved my Grandpa Bell, not my father (who I thank for most of these embarassing memories....but it is his Dad and as you'll learn...the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree).

So, I remember spending MOST of my childhood days on my Grandma and Grandpa's farm. He was a cattle farmer and had TONS of land that made prime locations for tree houses, and all kinds of kid games. This specific story happened when I was maybe 16 years old. It was a typical family gathering at their house. Adults inside being loud and kids outside being crazy. I wandered through both before I found myself outside and noticed a gaggle of my little cousins (and siblings) gathered around the cattle guard poking it with a few sticks. I wandered over and became a silent observer to find out what they were doing.

They explained that there was a turtle stuck in the bottom of it and they were trying to save it's life. I looked down and sure enough it was a pretty good size turtle. I sat and watched while they tried effortlessly to help it with their tiny little sticks. My cousin Jake is quite the animal lover so he was extremely devoted to helping this turtle escape. Welp, before too long my loving grandfather came out with his shotgun, inquired as to what was going on, and told the kids to move back. Yup....you guessed it, he promptly pointed the shotgun through the cattle guard and blew that little turtle away, in front of all the cousins who were watching stunned. He walked away and muttered something about saving it's life for them.

Part of me sat in shock and pity for the cousins who spent most of their day trying to save the turtle and part of me just threw my head back and laughed hysterically at watching my grandpa come out and blow it away after hours of rescue attempts by small, animal loving children.

My grandpa is/was a great man but he was also hilarious and stubborn. Case in point: he tried to convince my Grandma that he was going to drive a car (that was broken and could only be driven in reverse) to a nearby shop in a nearby town to get it fixed. How was he going to get it there? He was going to drive backwards all the way there! Every one tried talking him out of it to no avail. However, my grandma finally came up with the solution. "Rex if you do that you'll get a horrible kink in your neck" So there it was...that simple fact alone convinced him it wasn't a good idea. He was an interesting sort. I love him and miss him so much.