Part 16. Update and corrections from 15.

I must have had one of those brain things because I messed up the day I received my driver's license. In any event, with all the refiguring and editing of the time line, I discovered that I actually received my license during the summer of my nineth to tenth grade year.

My episode with Father Junkin and the decision to repeat the 8th grade in Arkansas rather than spend a six week long summer school session at Jesuit, put me behind a year. That, and the fact that the early 1950's rule that didn't allow kids to enter the first grade until they were six, actually found me as a 7 year old when I finished the first grade.

The cool thing about that surrounds the opportunities I had at the Colossus Midland as a part time delivery boy who had already been everywhere and met everybody when I went along with my Uncles during delivery times to all the plants.

That summer, we had an emergency breakdown order for a "Bucket Elevator Belt" that was used to convey corn from the rail road unloading facility to the top of a grain elevator that was located in a feed mill in Ranger, Texas.

As luck would have it, my Uncle Woodrow called me into his office and asked if I wanted to go that far to make a delivery. Needless to say, when I looked at the map, I said that I would be thrilled to go as the grain elevator was past Abeline, Texas where Eisenhower was born. My mind was racing and I was trying to figure out how early I would have to leave to make a distance that long and still get to see Eisenhower.

I went to the belt fabrication shop and worked all day on the conveyor belt. I had to punch holes in it to accommodate the bolts that were used to attach the buckets that the corn would be scooped up with. It was really easy as we had a metal template that allowed us to align the bolt holes precisely and prevented any kind of mistake in the spacing of the elevator buckets that would be bolted there.

When we finished, I loaded it in the back of a station wagon they used for deliveries, went home and prepared to leave early the next  morning.

I left Shreveport at the crack of dawn and was racing my way to the grain elevator so that I could leave and go back to visit Eisenhower's birth place.

I went through Dallas and Ft. Worth without even stopping for fuel and continued west bound to Ranger. It was a really long trip and I didn't quite have enough time to tour anything by the time I made it back to Abeline, but I did go into town to see a marker and some notes about Eisenhower. I was a little disappointed but decided that I would get back to the library and hit the books about Eisenhower when I made it back to Shreveport.

I pulled into the Colossus Midland warehouse early the next morning and was greeted with an "atta boy"  from my Uncles and several pats on the back from the other guys there. Cecil Murray came in and hugged my neck and told me, in a somewhat joking fashion, that he was glad I made it and that I didn't stop at any of the strip clubs in Dallas to drink beer with the all the naked girls.

I"m sure I reminded him that I was only 15 but he just laughed out loud and told me to get ready to go again because he had another break down at an asphalt plant in Bossier City.

I loaded the pick up truck with a few supplies that the maintenance crew at The Winford Company needed and I was off for another adventure. Cecil had me stop on the way to the plant to pick up a dozen donuts. He told me to go to the back of the yard and report to "Snuffy".

Snuffy ran the part of the plant where all the rock crushing was done. There was a conveyor belt there that had ripped itself apart and they had to repair it with the Flexco fastners I'd brought. When I showed up with the fastners, he recognized the delivery truck and began waving his hands to direct me to a parking spot close to the crusher. When I got out with the donuts, his face lit up.

Introductions were made and I told him how I fit into the picture at Colossus. He told me that he had to run the plant all day and would much rather do the maintenance on the week end. I told him that if he would wait until Friday afternoon to order his stuff I would deliver it on Saturday morning with another box of donuts. He had to get back to work but asked me to take the packing slip to the office.

When I did that, I ran into the owner in the parking lot. His name was Jim Winford, a man I'd heard of but had never met.

He saw the pick up truck and the papers in my hand so he walked toward me. I extended my hand and we introduced ourselves.

He told me that he knew all of my Uncles and that he and Cecil Murray had been doing business for quite a while. I was really impressed that the actual owner of the company would take time to talk to a kid that was really nothing more than a delivery boy, but he did and made me feel right at home. Little did I know at the time but my relationship with the Winford family was to be one that lasted until the day I was mandated to retire by the VA hospital in Shreveport. That was December 28, 2010. My introduction to Jim Winford was made 48 years ago.

That relationship was so critical to this story that I will wait until I get to my "after Vietnam years" to define it and explain why it was and still is so important. They don't make people like the Winford's anymore and I assure you, it is a really cool story.

In any event, I wanted to get back on the time line prior to my junior year at Byrd High School but wanted to make sure that the "You should have seen this coming" concept included the experiences I had with people like the Winford Family and historical curiosities like the trip to Eisenhower's home place.

Thanks for putting up with the no grammer, no spell check madness that these posts seem to have as typical. I'm feeling a bit better now and hope to be able to continue with this tomorrow. Thanks also for the comments and encouragements to continue.

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