Eight Year Old Boy....continued The 2nd Thing

Thought For The Day

John Fielder and I -circa 1950

When we moved from our house on 17th St. to the house on Fayette I left my best friend, Johnny Barchek, behind. We played endless hours by the railroad track and in the field between our houses where there was a pond that housed plenty of critters suitable for the curiosity of two small boys. We also spent late afternoons lying on the floor listening to the exploits of Straight Arrow, Sky King, Sgt Preston of the Mounties and others on the radio. But Johnny became a casualty of the moving wars and after we moved I never saw or heard from him again.

But leaving old friends opens the door for new friends and when we moved to Fayette Street I met someone who would become a lifetime friend, John Fielder. I don't remember how I met John but I walked past his house on the way to school and I must assume he was in the same class with me. Somehow we became pals and found time to spend together doing a variety of things. One of the great activities was a weekend trip to his dad's cottage on Peach Lake. As I write this I have no idea where Peach Lake is but I will locate it on the map. It was the first trip I ever took away from home for an overnight stay. One of the more humorous events from that trip was the Saturday morning breakfast. John's Dad, Clyde offered me my breakfast and my response was I don't like or want or something along those lines to which he replied, OK, it's a long time til lunch. You might wanna try it. I did of course after only a small amount of consideration. It was a bit of early parent training for me. I used the same technique often as a parent myself. It's hard to tell these stories without a lot of sidebars, I'll try to control myself.

John and I spent a lot of time together doing kid things and one day we were talking about our parents and how badly they treated us. There is no accusation in that remark, I'm just setting the stage. We both felt that we were Dicken's kids, the Oliver Twist's of the neighborhood. After many discussion about this untenable situation it became obvious that there was only one solution to the problem. We had to run away from home. That put into motion the breakout plan of the century.

It was summer, you can't run away from home in the Winter. That's much too complicated. First we had to consider a suitable food supply to take with us. John had a Handy Andy red tool box that would perfectly disguise the food. One of us took a can of tuna fish out of the family larder along with some carrots and cookies. You never know when you might need to catch a horse for transportation or a rabbit to eat. We were preparing for the worst possible conditions, lack of food. We decided on the day and gathered an extra shirt or two. We set up a logical diversion by saying to his mom that we were going to my house and to my mother that were were going to his. With the time and place set, the food stores in place and the extra clothing stowed we awaited the right moment for the plan to be implemented. Our target date was Wednesday.

Wednesday arrived and we met for strategy session. Late afternoon was selected as the time. And so we waited.

To be continued.....

©Herb Ratliff, February 17, 2011, All Rights Reserved