I was lucky to be able to live a few years on a farm.
Well at the time I did not think I was lucky!
It was a small 16 acres, half of it was a veggie garden.
My favorite was the half acre of melons! Nothing like busting open a ripe watermelon on a hot day. For some unknown reason, my mom's Uncle planted an acre of blackeye peas.
I was told I could pick all the peas I wanted!
Now blackeye peas don't get ripe at the same time. They get ripe All the Time! In the mornings I would pick peas, after school I would pick peas. I think there were a couple of nights I woke up picking peas!
I hated blackeye peas.
The plow mule would wonder down to the pea patch and watch me. I think he was laughing at me. I bet he was thinking "Now you know how I feel!"
Taking care of a pea patch has to be one of the hardest jobs in the world. My back hurts just thinking about those days.
I did learn a lot in that pea patch. I learned that it would take about 4 hours to pick a bushel of peas, and that 5 bushels would sell for about 20 dollars. I learned if you did not pick the peas they would die on the vines, not serving a purpose.
I think everyone should live on a farm, as my mom's Uncle would say "You need to earn your keep." Which now I know means " If you do nothing, nothing will happen. Everyone has and needs a purpose."
As much as I hated that blackeye pea patch, I have to say they were the best tasting peas I ever had!
Parents plant some peas, or melons, some tomatoes. Watch your kids beam with pride as they grow and harvest them. Then as you sit around the dinner table enjoying what they grew, look at how proud they are!
Teach them that everything and everyone has a purpose in life, and if they do nothing, nothing will happen.
A Texan's Hope
Paul
Cowboys, cops and robbers were the go to games when I was a kid. My brother, cousins and me would spend hours running, hiding, and yelling "Bang! Bang! You're dead!" Now that I think about it, hard to believe I could stay still in one spot hiding for so long.
Reading the news it now evident that those games will be a thing of the past. "A 5 year old girl, gets booted out of school for 10 days for telling her friends that she is going to bring her Hello Kitty Bubble gun to school and shoot them with bubbles."
I was lucky growing up, my father was a Marine, and a police officer. He had one heck of a gun collection.
The first time he took my brother and me to shoot a gun, I must have been around 10 yrs old. I was so excited!
He took us out under a bridge of a creek bed. (There were no shooting ranges back then.) He explained the difference of a real gun and my toy guns. Gun safety, which seem to take hours! Then the time came for us to shoot. It was a Smith and Wesson 38. My brother shot first, I don't remember his shooting, I was so excited and nervous about shooting. My father had threw some empty beer cans on the other side of the creek. When my turn came I pointed the gun with one hand, that is till my dad made me use both! Bang! Bang! Bang! There were 6 bangs in all. I did not hit any of the cans, but I did get close enough that a can did move! I don't remember the first girl I kissed, or the first time I had sex, but I will never forget the first time I shot a gun! The one thing that sticks in my mind after all these years is him saying " Never point a gun at a person, unless you are going to shoot them, and shoot to kill them, cause the son of a bitch will kill you if you don't."
Maybe what is wrong with all this gun control talk, is that there are generations of kids who were not taught about those son of bitches!
I think gun safety classes should be taught in schools.
I hope my kids will take some, and teach their kids also.
Read about how New York, made a law that a gun magazine could only have 7 rounds in it, Hell if you can't stop a person with 7 shots, you might what to invest in a shotgun and some "00" shells! It really don't bother me if our government wants to ban Assault rifles I say let them. I really don't see a reason why a person would need one. Assault rifles are a "Class III" weapon. Most gun dealers do not have a license to sell them. It cost hundreds of dollars for transfer fees and the local law enforcement office has to approve a person having one.
These guns that they are calling Assault weapons are really Pimped up hunting rifles. Anyone can buy a hunting rifle and get a pimped up stock and grips and barrels for them. Back when I was a kid, they had assault rifles, they were called "Big Game" guns.
I really don't think it comes down to banning assault weapons. I think what it comes down to is that some people want to see how far they can go in chipping away our Second Amendment Rights. "Lets see how far we can go. If we can do this, we might be able to start working on banning people from owning fire arms, then the Freedom of Speech will be a breeze!" Oh if my Doctor ever asks me if I own a gun, I'll tell him " Try breaking into my house one night and see!"
America is changing. It is changing because we are letting it. When was the last time you wrote your Congressman or Senator? If they start getting hundreds of letters everyday from us telling them how we think, they just might start worrying about their reelection!
I just HOPE that when my grand kids are grown up, they will still be able to own a gun if they choose so.
Just a Texan's Hope
Paul
Ray Miller made me a News junkie.
The first time I remember seeing Ray was on KPRC channel 2 News in Houston. John Kennedy Jr. was saluting, as his father's casket was passing by.
The news camera shot in on Ray as he removed his black horned rimed glasses to wipe the tears away from his eyes. It was at that moment I became addicted to the news. Most kids, had dreams of being a fireman, police officers, or president. I dreamed of being a news man.
50 years later I still have that dream.
What ever happen to that news anchor, who reported the news as it really was? They did not bash democrats or republicans. They reported the news. They never let their personal beliefs on gun control, abortion, and politics interfere with the news.
My life was formed around the daily news.
During the Vietnam war, I would always stop to watch the news to see the latest casualty reports of our service men who died. Up in the right hand corner of the tv screen, they would have the numbers of American troops who died. For some reason I thought I had to know each day. It pained me to see those numbers. Even to this day a part of me dies, when I see that one of our troops has died.
We all have memories of news events that we will never forget. Those events helped formed who we are, which has me worried. Our kids, and grand kids, will see or hear news events from news anchors that lean far right, or far left in political opinions. I just HOPE as parents that we will help them find a common ground in the middle.
I decided to do this blog for my grand kids, because I want them to grow up well balanced in the events of our times. A way for them to know who I am, and how our country use to be. I will try to be that news anchor in their life that tells it in an balanced way, and HOPE that when they grow up, they will see how great our country was, and how great it can be. It is not our leaders in Washington who our kids and grand kids remember, it is us. If America is going to survive it is because we as parents and grand parents shared with them our values.
All of these blog post will be about my life to some extent. All will be true. Some will be funny, sad, and heartbreaking. I will be honest, and yes it will hurt me, because I have not had a perfect life. I just hope I can help my grand kids have one.
I guess you can say this is a "Texan's Hope" for the future.
Paul
