Slim Randles' Home Country
Goodbye to the good and the bad
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[January
12, 2013]
When it's cold, build a fire in the fireplace, or the
wood-burning heater, or maybe just light a candle and look in the
flames, look deep in the flames for the answers. |
I've always believed they are there, and this time of year is a time
for questions. It is a time to weigh the events of the past year and
toss them around and ask why.
It was a good year for each of us in some respects and a bad year
in others. Just like every year.
A few of our young people died. Others were born. Some precious
old-timers left us, too, but at least they'd had the chance to hang
and rattle and turn gray. It was the young ones that make us ask the
tough questions.
But there were also the beautiful things that happened last year.
People went out of their way to help others. People tried valiantly
to better themselves. Some did it by studying a foreign language.
Some did it by taking wood shop at the community college. Dud
practiced hard all year and it worked. His accordion playing sounds
much better.
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column] |
The old Miller dairy got pulled down. Many of us were worried
about kids playing in there and getting hurt. It really wasn't safe
anymore. And while we'll miss seeing it out there, with that big
tobacco ad painted on its roof, we'd miss having those kids around
even more. You make decisions and hope for the best.
There were some new homes built last year, and Steve has started
adding on to his cabin up in the mountains not too far from Jasper
Blankenship's mining claim. Steve just needed a hole-up spot. A
place where a cowboy can go and no one can kick him out.
And so our world says goodbye to another year and we'll hope this
one is better, and it probably will be. Life brings the good and the
bad together at this time of year and helps us wash our lives with a
laugh and a tear and a dollop of forgiveness.
[Text from file received from Slim Randles]
Read free samples of Slim's books at
www.slimrandles.com. |