06/19/2025
It was a different day and time.
When Richard was 6 years old, his dad handed him a lever action .22 and told him “It’s time you set on your own (while deer hunting). You’re old enough now.” He had been given (or possibly earned) a great responsibility.
Richard grew up listening to the “Old-Timers,” sitting around in old metal lawn chairs, sippin’ on a cold one - conducting business – telling stories. It was “Living History” and the experience would help shape Richard to become who he is. It was his job when the “suds” were running low, as per Uncle Pablo barking at him, to “Go get us another one.”
There must have been something “magical” about turning eleven years old. When Richard was eleven, he got his 1st Deer – rode his 1st Steer – and had his 1st Beer.
Maybe it was a “Right of Passage.” This time, when Ole Pablo barked, “Go get us a beer,” he added; “and get yourself one too.”
Richard was proud as a Turkey Gobbler, and instinctively knew he had just moved up the pecking order. He took that first sip…..and $Q7-/_+!; that was the nastiest tasting crap he’d ever put in his mouth, and he thought to himself (how can anybody drink this sh_t), but he didn’t let on and he forced the whole thing down.
He nomore had done so, when Pablo hollers, “Get us another one.” Something had now changed though. Richard got everyone another round, and it was like they changed the beer “recipe,” cuz that 2nd beer went down smooth! And for the next 25 plus years, they went down Real Smooth. It had become a way of life.
Then one day, out of the blue, Richard thought to himself, “I don’t like ‘something’ having control over my life.” He quit cold turkey – never missed it, - never looked back.
Several months later, his beautiful bride from when they were barely out of their teen years observed, “Did you quit drinking? Oh, you did it for me.” Richard bluntly stated, “No, I did it for me. I quit 3 months ago. You go get a haircut, and I better notice 30 minutes later.”
It wasn’t long (and was not the intention, at least not Richard’s…) that Richard understood that “something” no longer had a strangle hold, but someone had “gently” got into the drivers seat.
As an ex-career Truck Driver, Richard could clearly understand that rear view mirror was the past, and what mattered now was looking out the windshield.
Everybody’s got a past. What matters is now, and what you learned from that past.
