New Beginnings

  I am not necessarily proud that I had to work long hard hours (meaning 60-70 per week as a normal work week) throughout the majority my adult life. What I am proud of is the fact that nobody ever   gave   me anything and everything I achieved, I did it through hard work, perseverance and determination. I worked longer hours than most people I know not because I wanted to, rather it was the price I paid to provide for my family and achieve what I consider success. I figured out many decades ago that in order to be a success I would have to pay the price of money for a college degree, or pay the price time and work my way through the ranks. I am convinced that a large part of my adulthood success was because I simply out worked most of the people that I worked with and was determined to be better than they were in as many ways as I could. I have to say it paid off, though I did end up working for about seven years longer than I had planned and did not retire until the age...

  It is July of 2001 and I have just received my 5th or 6th Jury Duty Summons since I registered to vote for the first time in 1976 when I was 19 years old. Each time I got one of these summons in the mail before, the case had either settled before the jury selection process started or I was not selected for one reason or another so I have never served on a jury. I have always wanted to do this, at least once just to see how this process worked in real life versus how it is portrayed on television or in the movies and I expected this one to be no different. This case was filed in District Court and was about a property owner who had agreed to be paid by a power utility provider to set one of those very tall metal transmission towers on his property complete with easement access. He agreed to this arrangement for $75,000. Shortly after construction started, he decided he was entitled to a larger sum of money, which they refused to pay so he was now taking them to court to get the $3...

The year would have been about 1973 and the month would have been about June of that year. Steve, Rusty and me were using Steve's old 1959 Chevrolet pick up truck to haul hay that summer. We had several jobs lined up and we wanted to finish up a small hay patch just north of the Callisburg high school so we could move on to other more lucrative opportunities over around Gordonville near Lake Texoma.  This hay belonged to a guy named Jim Titch and this little pasture only made about 150-200  bales or so. It would not take too long because the barn we were stacking it in was pretty close by. Our plan was to get up very early that morning, knock it out and move on. We agreed that Rusty would drive to the hay field and Steve would pick me up and we would meet up at 5:00 that morning. What we didn't know was there was no moon that night and it was absolutely pitch dark at that time.  If you have ever hauled hay, you know it is much cooler to haul at night time, but there is al...