story 1 Farm Hands and Head Aches

      
           Little John was just finishing his last load for the morning, he was 16 and still didnt have his liscense but while he was in the fields or on my road I didnt mind letting him drive. He had gotten up around eight'o clock this morning and had already finished half of the chores I had planned for him today, so when he pulled up to the barn in my old model chevy truck, I called him over while he approached I though about that old truck; it was stacked high with hay, the doors were about rusted through into the cab it was white with a faded blue stripe right down the middle of both side it was a truck that had lasted me a long time. I bought it new prolly when his dad was still a youngun, Sorry about that  just an old mans remembering. Anyway the short 16 year old boy walked up the small hill towards the barn,it had taken this long in life to start it but he looked just like his father now. short brown hair, blue eyes not the tallest boy in the world probably around 5'8 or 5'9, he had shoulders so wide that he had to turn side ways to make it through doorways, and he was quite, reserved but he alos had a lauhg that could shake your soul, yeah he was begining to look just like him. "How ya doin Pops" he says as he sets the two square bales down in front of me "I didnt think I was gonna see you today".
      "Well son I happen to be turning 73 in about a month or two and doing work like this for that long gives me the right to sleep a little late some days". That boy just smiles at me and nods then he stacks the hay behind me and In the  very tone that his father once used he says " well then old man have seat here I can't have you going down on me because after finishing up here I don't know if I'll have enough energy to drag you to the truck". Smiling I do sit down on one of the bales and find the nearest rock that was about as long as my thumb, as he stumbles back towards the truck I take aim and throw it hits his head at about the same time he picks up the other bale and with a dull thud  he yells and cusses he even jumped up and down a few times in the process he trips over the bale he just dropped and falls flat on his back. By this time I have already fallen off my makeshift seat and have begun to roll around laughing at the boy.  we both get up dusting ourselves and as he walks up he just glares at me and I smile " sit down youngun and dont call me old even if it is true ". He does as I told him and sit down atop the bale facing me waiting to hear what I have to say. " It has been awhile since we have just talked  hasnt it?" he just grunts which I take as a yes, " well I know you always like to hear stories of the your dad when he was younger." " so here is one you might not have heard yet.
     "Ted was sixteen it was the early 1960's and he was still in school and It was towards the end of the school year if I remember right, he was unloading the truck that I had before this one into the old barn. He looked alot like you do now not very tall but strong and stubborn much like yourself. He had short brown hair and eyes as blue as the sky is, he was skinny but still had strength, he could flip a full bale acoss the field by himself, he wasn't shy at all and he had a laugh that could make any girl". He came home one day after school and was just tore up about something so i sat him down on those bales and made him sit there till he told me what was wrong". "Pa I really just dont understand why I have to go to school, I mean Ive been goin for years but I dont really learn much there I learn more in shop or on the football field then I do in all those classes". "well son neither me or your momma graduated high school and we have lived a good life, but we have worked everyday to have what we have here and we don't want you to have to work as hard as we have to keep your family fed". " Pa i understand that but I can work the farm just like anyone can and I can help you run it and everything...". " You sound an awful alot like your father just then but no boy and thats the end of it you will make something of yourself"."After that was done he sauntered away back to the truck and got the other bales off then he sat down again with me".
     "Hey pops why did dad not like school?". " well I know that it wasnt that he couldnt do it because he did and he was damn well smart enough to do more than that, but he had his mind on alot of things other than just a classroom and a book. as I remember around that time there were several little girls that had his attention and prolly more than that". "Ah I remember two imparticular that made him tear his hair out a few times".
     Janie was a year older than your father and she was a very pretty girl long straight blonde hair and she always wore dresses with those flowers on em when she'd come a'callin on Ted".  "see she could drive and Ted couldnt at the time he had told us before he left that he was gonna be bringin her home for dinner this evening for us to be ready when she came".  so the day went by and we were gonna eat around six thirty that evenin' and your grandma took it as a personal challange whenever anyone came over to empty out the refrigerator with meals that were impossible for four people to eat by themselves". So around five o'clock maw set the table and was waiting for those two to show up, your dad had said they would be doing things in town before they came to dinner so we figured they would be running late cause he didnt get off practice until most days, around six fourtyfive I was gettin pretty hungry and annoyed, when I heard two people come walkin up to the door and when I looked outside it was Ted and Janie comin towards the house from the bottom field. Janie was all tore up and your dad didnt look to good either and I stepped out side when they got close enough and began to ask where they had been, and I explained to them that I liked to eat my dinner on time. After my rant I noticed something out of place your dad wouldnt look me in the eye and little Janie was as red as that barn wall and looked like she could set a fire with her cheek. Well being the good father I am I pulled your dad aside and told him to explain whatever happened and that his mother didnt have to know so all three of us walked around the corner of the house and as Ted talked Janie got more blush, and as she got more blush the more I laughed at the both of em".
 "Well what had dad done ? pops tell me".
"See now your dad was a sneaky little feller and he and Janie had taken her car to the lower end of the bottom field when she got Ted from practice, I dont think it had occured to your dad when he plotted all of this that it had been raining pretty steady for a few days up until that mornin'. So they had got down there and parked and started getting even more well aquainted with each other when they had noticed the time. when Ted tried to get the car out he just spun tires until it was knee deep in mud. His face was red from scrubbin all the makeup from Janie off and her face was red because she had lost a shoe in the mix-up and she couldn't find her bloomers".
     "wait a minute no dad and Mrs. Janie; Brians mom?", " Yes boy I guess it would be your buddies momma but its better left unsaid in front of anybody ya hear?"
 "Yes sir, but what did you do after that?".
"well if you would stop askin so many questions I would have told ya already. so the three of us stood out there a minute and I told them two to go on inside and sit and to tell your grandma that my brother needed me to run the tractor to him real quick. So I took the girls other shoe hopped on the tractor and went and pulled the car out of the mud and got it back to the road out of sight of the house. when I got back home I got an ear full from your granny but It was all worth it when Janie stood up and  your granny noticed she didnt have shoes on, she started askin all kinds of question and Janie couldn't answer any of em. This just roused my enjoyment because i just kepp snickerin at em, and then before They left for Ted to walk her to her car I had taken the missing  bloomers and given them to your dad he put them in the back pocket of his jeans, well when he turned and started out the door and his momma said that she was gonna do laundry and that she would was his shop rag with it before he could say no she reached in his pocket and pulled out that Janie's bloomers and was just smackin the fire out of Ted with em. They ran from the house and your grandma way down till the curve in the road, while I sat in the kitchen laughin until I couldnt breath at the lot of em."
  as his granpa was laughing the boy just smiled and said
 " I never knew anything about that was dad always doin stuff like that?",
 "Yep he was always gettin into something when he was younger but I think that was the last time Janie came back to the house.Well as much as I would like to sit here all day and tell stories there is still work that needs finishing up so and go mend that fence at the bottom field and dont get stuck in the mud".
    "yes sir"
  The rest of the day went by pretty quick and after dinner the boy was told he could go run around for awhile, Me and Grandma Lucy set on the porch just watchin the sky.
"Well what did you two do today John? I saw yuns in the barn this mornin". "Well Luce I was just tellin him a little about how his dad was when he was his age, He reminds me so much of him he looks, acts and even talks like him darlin, he will be a fine man one day".
"I understand what ya mean John he is more like his father than he realizes, and he best get to bed he has to go the school and then he has practice too tomorrow, go get him John and tell him its time for bed".
As she walked inside I stood up and walked around the house to see the field that little John had wandered off into, at the fence I could see the boy standin next to a large bale of hay trying to roll it across the field everytime he pushed it would move forward a bit but not enough to roll. I looked on with pride and a smile, to no one imparticular I said "Just like you son, he might have my name but he is just like you, be proud of him".