I just turned 42 this month. I don't know why, but its got me thinking about my mom, and my step-dad Jack who have both passed away for several years now. I talked to my sister Patti a couple weeks ago and one weekend stopped in to visit with my brother Mike. The other day I was wondering how Jack's kids are all doing. This got me thinking of something that happened when I was a kid.
When I was in my early teens, as a summer job, I would work at
Sligo Feed Mill which was owned by my step-dad Jack. Jack "dated" my mom for like over ten years. He had been divorced for a long time so one day I asked mom why they didn't get married. Mom told me it had to do with Jack feeling like it was a sin because his ex-wife was alive. I never understood that because his ex was remarried... But mom never worried about it or pressured him (not that I ever heard about) and finally they did get married. There was a teen period where I didn't get along with Jack but seeing as I didn't get along so well with mom at that time either, I know now it was no biggie and nothing to do with Jack. Anyway, Jack had two sons, Tony and Tom. Tony has a wife and two kids (one of which was a little ass-hat named Matt: when we went to
Opryland and I lost the totally cool
Greek fisherman's cap my sister Bonnie got me from Greece said "that's okay. It looked stupid on you anyway!"), lived in Kokomo and worked for Delco. Tom (at the time) was a wreck of alcohol, drugs, and had a rap sheet--for stabbing the local sheriff's son in a bar... Jack's two youngest were twins. Sandy stayed with their mom I think because I didn't see her much. Sam, on the other had, just got his permanent drivers license. This memory is about Sam.
Sam and I got to go every once in a while and deliver feed. I always liked that part because you got to see the animals which were mostly just cows and pigs, but sometimes quarter horses, Thoroughbreds and even a couple farms that had Arabians! The Mill would custom mix any feed to specifications, then deliver it. We would get it all loaded into the machine called
the mixer. The mixer was this big blue metal bin with huge motors on the top and sides which drove large mixing blades inside. It had windows so you could see, but they were usually crusted over with grain dust and molasses (the liquid pumped in to make the feed more appealing to animals). It had this auger in the bottom where you could dump the ingredients (namely vitamins and minerals), the grains would be pumped into the top or come in through the hammer mill if some farmer came in with their own corn/hay/soybeans/etc. to grind. The whole thing was supported on a scale which took of the weight of the machinery and the mixer itself. Lastly, it had three hatches you can open to dispense the feed into bags. Each hatch had a lip where you could put a heavy woven plastic or
burlap feed sack and let the mixed feed spill out into the bags. When the bag is nearly full, you take it off (closing the hatch at the same time) and tie it up with a special knot that I still remember how to tie. These were loaded onto a pickup truck and driven to the stable or farm for delivery.
One day we were out to deliver feed. We got only about a quarter mile away and Sam told me it looked like it was going to rain. For rain, we always had a
tarpaulin (tarp for short) to cover the bed of the truck. To tie it down we used the same
twine that we had tied the bags shut with. I had a pocket knife, and Sam had this big
lock-blade knife that came with a
large leather belt case. It was about the size of a cell phone case. So we get out the tarp, and some twine, and tie it all down so that no water can get in. After making sure that everything was secure, we got back in the cab and headed on down the road. It was only a few minutes and I heard this "slam" noise like we had hit something. I look over at Sam, and he looks sort of scared, but the truck kept going and we had no flat or anything so we both just sort of ignored it. About a mile down the road I hear the same noise and I look over at Sam and he is white as a sheet. It is clear to see that he's scared and I asked him "What's wrong, did we hit something?"
"I don't know..." says Sam. At this point I'm thinking he's on drugs or something, so I begin to watch him out of the corner of my eye. Next time I hear the "slam" noise I see movement out of the corner of my eye. I look at Sam and he says "I think something's got me!" Now I am positive he is on drugs, so I continue to watch him closely in case he goes into a seizure or something. The guy is p*ss-your-pants scared!! The next time I hear the noise, I see his whole body jerked over toward the door, his head is pressed up against the window for a split second!! The truck, fully loaded with feed, jogs over into the oncoming lane a little. I fasten my seat belt. He gets the truck under control quickly saying the whole time "Something's got me, man!" and completely freaking out! I actually believe him as it happens again and I can see that his whole body is jerked around like something from the Exorcist! He's still saying "It's got me!" as he pulls off the road--this mysterious force slamming him into his door a couple more times as he is getting the truck stopped. For a minute he just sits there breathing heavy and shaking, his eyes are wide and white like his skin. He is scared sh*tless!!
He opens the door cautiously and discovers that a long piece of twine has made a loop around his knife case. When the end would catch onto the rear wheels of the truck, they would run it over and jerk the case hard which was firmly connected to his belt...and thus his whole body would slam against the truck door.
If I remember correctly, it never did rain...
