Tough to make a buck..

There were no such things as allowances, well at least not where I grew up. You wanted money, you go out and work for it. My six brothers and I would do all the jobs our dad had us to do around our house, and we got clothes, food and a roof over our head as my dad put it. If we wanted spending money we had to go out and work elsewhere, (mowing yards, painting, trimming trees, picking up soda pop bottles people threw from their cars to get the deposits for them at the store, three cents a piece if I remember correctly.) You could mow two acres of grass for six to ten dollar, depending on how many shrubs there were to mow around and trim. And the ones I hated the most would let the grass get six inches tall or more before they would have you cut it and THEN not want to pay you extra because it was twice as long as it should have been before you mowed. Once while negotiating how much extra it would be with one older neighbor ladies who was a real tightwad. And to make it worse, she had horses and in the summer the horse shit smell around her place was something awful. Anyway without realizing it a snake had wound around my right leg and when I felt something on my leg I reached down to scratch it or shoo it a way is when I realized it was a snake I would guess about three feet long, looking right at me. Well, needless to say I did a one legged dance that has never been duplicated since to shaking that thing off my leg. She walked out calmly and picked it up by the tail and threw it about 15 feet. She said " it's only a garden snake". I didn't care what kind of snake it was, I then priced the lawn mowing job so high, she turned me down. Needless to say snakes are not one of my favorite reptiles. It was tough to make a buck back then.

Pivotal Day

At age 7, I did what all boys my age did. I ran, climbed, rode my bike whenever I had one that would work. I didn't realize it a at the time or for many years after, that this particular day would be a very pivotal day in my life. My dad had placed a two by six inch plank between these two oak trees about 12 feet apart, and centered a birdhouse in the middle of it. Little did I know at the time how much that day would play such a large part in my life. It really ended up playing a big part of who I would be in so many ways. I will explain what exactly I mean. It's all 20/20 hindsight now, but it makes sense to me.

I was so impressed with the way the birds were able to fly into such a small hole to build a nest for the eggs they would lay, then a minute later fly out to get more straw. And the colors of the birds were so bright.

After watching this one bird go in and out so many times, I got this great idea I would catch it and make a pet out of it. So I proceeded to climb one of the oaks and made it to the plank the birdhouse was attached to. I thought I would slide out next to the birdhouse be very still and once the bird took more straw in I would reach in and grab it. My plan was working perfectly. I had slid out the plank and waited patiently. All of a sudden there he was. He landed on the round perch and went into the hole. I immediately stuck my hand in to grab my new feathered friend and thats when things started falling apart quickly. The first thing I noticed was the bird pecking at my fingers.  I think it startled me more than it hurt. When I tried to pull my hand out of, what seemed a much smaller hole, I couldn't get it out. The more at tugged at it the looser the house became. The next thing I knew, the birdhouse and I were headed for the ground. First the birdhouse, then me landing on top of it, head first. Dazed and not knowing which way was up, I looked up to see my dad running for me. He had been working across the yard on the roof for a one story apartment he was building for my mom's sister who was a quadriplegic. He saw me fall. I knew I was probably in big trouble because I should not have been up there messing with the birdhouse. I tried my best to stand up and act like I was ok, but I knew I wasn't and my dad knew better too. The last thing I remember was him swooping me up in his arms and I passed out.

The next thing I recall is walking out of my dad's office. He was a Chiropractor, had his office in our home. My Aunt Jackie was sitting in the living room with my mom and as she looked at me, she said "Boy you look like you've been in a fight."

My mom got up and hugged me and everyone was making a fuss over me and I'm thinking this is pretty cool getting all of this attention. Something you didn't often get, growing up in a large family. Little did I know what I was in for. For the next two years I fought migraine headaches that you wouldn't believe, For months after the fall, my fingers would not work very well and when I pressed down on anything it hurt all the way up my arm. I had been taking piano lessons when this happened and my dad insisted that I keep taking lessons. I remember being so mad at him for making me practice, knowing it was so painful. But he knew that it was good PT and as it turned out, I eventually gained full use of my fingers and could play the piano pretty good as well. For months I would sleep holding my right arm upright at the elbow because if I laid it down flat it would just throb and throb. My mom said even long after I had healed, I would sleep with that arm like that. But the thing I hated most was that I did not grow one fraction of an inch in height for over two years. Do you know how humiliating it is to get hand me downs from your little brothers. Or that all of your classmates just keep getting taller and you don't? I finally did start to grow again at a regular rate, but I was running two years behind. My fourth grade teacher was also the librarian. Every once in a while she would ask for a couple of volunteers to come help put returned books back on the shelves and help her get things organized. So one morning she asked for volunteers and as usual I would raise my hand because everyone wanted to get out of the regular classroom for something different to do. I must have really been exuberant, because she looked at me and said "John put your hand down. Your too short to help with this." I shrunk back down into my seat and felt so humiliated. I hated that women from that day on.  I regress, the reason I wrote this to begin with is because of how much that day affected my life as I aged. Even though I recovered to the point of doing just about anything physical I needed to do I always had to deal with headaches and neck issues which were taken care of by a combination of aspirin and chiropractors. Until the age of 56 when I woke up with a pain like I've never experienced. For the past 4 years I have been unable to work at any job that required much of any physical effort. I have just recently went through a second spine surgery and will need a few more months before I am ready to get back at it again. I already feel much stronger than I have in years and things look pretty good now. But having so much time to think lately, I couldn't help but wonder which way my life would have gone had that one event when I was seven had not occurred.

Funny, with all this time on my hands lately, I haven't had the urge once, to do any bird watching. Im an actor now and I really love it. I've been working on it for about 15 years. This has been and will be my pursuit from now on. Because its what I love to do. I recommend to anyone, "If you're not doing what you love doing, start doing it today". You wont regret it.