Man, What a Time-Man, What a Life , livre ebook

Inspiring Voices - Joe Brown

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

117 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Native Nebraskan Joe Brown has lived a good life. In his collection of true stories, Brown takes a poignant look back into his past and all the ways his family and friends have influenced his path in life.Brownwho grew up on a dairy farm until his teenage years, when he moved to Farnam, Nebraskaoffers an introspective, often amusing glimpse back into the simple times of his childhood when vacations meant traveling a few hundred miles to visit family, when holding two fingers of his fathers hand meant security, and when neighbors and friends came to help whenever they were needed. From the carefree, barefoot days on the farm to the tumultuous changes as he matured into manhood, Brown reminisces about both the good and the bad as he learned to appreciate hard work, those who loved him unconditionally, and his relationship with God.Man, What a TimeMan, What a Life shares one mans inspirational perspective on his life from childhood to present day as he reflects on his unique moments in time.

Sujets

Lettres et linguistique

Informations

Publié par	Inspiring Voices
Date de parution	05 septembre 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781462407149
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0240€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Man, What a Time— Man, What a Life

Stories of My Life and My Family

Joe Brown

Copyright © 2013 Joe Brown.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Inspiring Voices books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

Inspiring Voices
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.inspiringvoices.com
1-(866) 697-5313

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4624-0713-2 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4624-0714-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013915168

Inspiring Voices rev. date: 9/4/2013

Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
My Ruby, My Ruby
Wichita
A Trip to Wichita
The In-Laws
Those Two Fingers
Old-School Men
Old-School Friends
Three Brothers: Harvey, Earl, and Ken
The Measure of a Man
Three Times
Raking and Mowing
School’s Out
A Few Simple Words
The Knife
The Bonds That Tie Us Together
Mini Bikes and Go-Carts
The Gutherless Farm
A Small Town, USA
The Ellis’
Wind Cave
Good-bye M. M. Miller
Dorothy
Sometimes Two
Animals
H. H. Major
The Bridge
Swimming and Fishing
Guilty or Not Guilty
A Bad Heart
You Can Pick Your Friends, But You Are Stuck with Your Relatives
Moments in Time
About the Author

Acknowledgments
First, I thank the Lord Jesus Christ, because without his mercy, grace, and love nothing is possible. Next, thanks to my wife—she is a true helpmate, and she is the reason I go on sometimes. Thanks to my daughter Chauncey for all her hard work. Thanks to my children for the inspiration that they give me. Thanks to Howard for trying to teach me about computers and to Jilly Willy for her work on the cover. Jilly has more talent in her little finger than I have in my whole body, plus I am her favorite uncle: thanks, Jilly. My mother and father have my thanks for a great life, the love you gave us, and all of those memories. Thank you to all my old-school friends and all old-school friends everywhere and to all my aunts and uncles and cousins. I love all of you, and you inspire me daily.

Preface
AFTER BEING MARRIED FOR thirty-two years, you would think on Valentine’s Day it would be easy for me to go to town and find something that expresses my love for my wife. But I had been to town twice, and I couldn’t find a thing. Nothing reached out and grabbed me.
I know some of you ladies are thinking: He was not looking hard enough or w hat a cheapskate . But it was really not about money or looking hard enough. I started to think maybe there was no gift out there that says what I want to say—to show her what she has meant to me and how much I love her.
So this is what I came up with: I will write some stories about our lives and the lives of our family and friends. Most of the stories will be about how we have lived in our native state of Nebraska, where many of the old-fashioned values still hold sway—particularly in the rural areas where we grew up.
I will start at the beginning, and we will see how it goes. It might be a couple pages, a couple paragraphs, or who knows? I’ll have to write these stories as if I were talking to my family and friends, because that’s how I know to express myself.
In these stories are many people who have influenced my life growing up in rural Nebraska. The people I will be speaking about are listed below:
• Earl and Frankie Brown (Father and Mother) • Aunt Toni and “King” George Beran (Frankie’s sister and husband) • Howard Brown (big brother) • Tim Brown (little brother) • Iva Brown (Imler) (sister, youngest of my siblings) • Howard Major (Frankie’s father) • Edna Phillips (Frankie’s mother) • Mike Beran, Cathy Beran (cousins) • Mr. Bob Brown (cousin) • Ken and Harvey Brown (Earl’s brothers) • “Ruby” Ruth Brown (my wife) • Suny, Skye, Chauncey, and Tel Brown (my children) • Dewley Dean “Turdhead” (my grandson, Suny’s son) • Kaihden and Alex (adopted great-nephews) • My childhood and other family friends that will be mention throughout.

I know on that Valentine’s Day, Ruby (that’s what I call her) you probably wanted diamonds or sweet nothings in a card or maybe even flowers sent to your work, but when I went to town, nothing seemed to fit or seemed to express what I wanted to say or show you how I really felt.
So this is it; this is all you get. I hope you enjoy it. I could go on and on about how I feel and the adventures we have had together—that’s why I don’t think this story will ever end. It will go on forever, till it is our time. So I will just keep writing this in my heart and mind, and in my thoughts day to day it will never end.
I love you, Ruby, with all my heart.
Man what a time—man, what a life!

My Ruby, My Ruby
THE THREE OF US—ME, my big brother, and my best friend, Mike “Beaver” Ellis—had worked all day out in the heat and the sun, so we decided to take a trip to the Gothenburg swimming pool to cool off a bit. The water felt so nice and cool; nothing felt better. I dove off the board, touched the bottom, and swam to the side of the pool.
When I came up, there she was, standing outside the fence and looking at everybody swimming. She was so beautiful; I couldn’t take my eyes off her. After staring at her over the edge of the pool for way too long, I finally thought, I have got to get her to notice me.
So I decided to go off the diving board again. I climbed out of the pool and tried to think of the dive I wanted to do to impress her: maybe a back flip or a one-and-a-half or a double. I got ready to work some of my magic and looked over to make sure she would notice. But she was gone.
She and her friend had left. All I could think was, How is she going to know what a stud I am if she does not see me dive?
So I just stepped off the board into the water and swam over to Mike “Beaver” and my big brother Howard to see if they were ready to go. We climbed into Howard’s Nova (soon it would be mine). I looked down the street, and I saw her again. She was with her friend and heading toward downtown.
We drove by them, and I yelled something out the window. They yelled back. I made Big Brother pull over. I opened the door, and they hopped in.
I thought, This is so easy; she is putty in my hands.
I also hoped that her girlfriend wasn’t interested in me too (I hated it when girls fought over me.) Anyway, we decided to go get a malt at Dave’s Dairy Bar. I didn’t realize that the girls were not interested in me. No, it was my so-called best friend, Mike, who they liked. He stole the show at Dave’s; everything I tried seemed to bring more attention to Mike. On the way home, I decided Mike was staying away from then on. I couldn’t take him anywhere. So that was the first encounter with the love of my life, and she didn’t even know I existed. Dang best friends!
It was the next winter before I heard her name again: Ruth. (As you can tell by the title of this chapter I came to usually call her “Ruby.”) Mike Widick was dating a girl from Gothenburg, and she had a friend who had just broken up with somebody and was interested in meeting me. At the time, I wasn’t sure if it was the same person, as there were many girls named Ruth in Gothenburg. I agreed as long as Mike “Beaver” was not going along. I figured I needed all the help I could get after the first encounter, but his kind of help I did not need.
We left after basketball practice. We were supposed to pick them up and just drive around a while and get to know one another for a bit. When we picked up Susan (Mike’s girl), she said that Ruth had to babysit for her brother, so we couldn’t go into their place. But Susan said that we could stop by, and Ruth would come out to the car to say hello. Really, all Ruth wanted to do was check me out to see if I passed the first test.
We pulled up to the trailer house, and my throat started to get dry. I wondered if this could be the same girl that I had been thinking about all that time. A girl opened the door to come outside. It was dark, but the porch light was on—it was her! My heart started to beat fast; I could hear it in my ears.
She came to the car window and looked in to check me out. She talked a little. I tried to speak and be a cool cat, but all I heard was the sound of my beating heart and blah, blah, blah coming out of my mouth. I was such a dork. She didn’t stay very long, as it was cold out.
When she left, she gave Susan a look like; you’ve got to be kidding me. Then she was off. I watched her go back to the trailer. I couldn’t take my eyes off her, knowing this would probably be the last time I would see her or hear her voice. I was crushed. We drove around a little longer, and Mike dropped off Susan. On the way home, I asked Mike if Susan had said anything. Mike said it didn’t look good. I rode home thinking I had