The Plumbers Assistant

Hey All,  I spent a great deal of time at an early age at my mother's parents house.  This was mostly for my own safety....................to seperate me from the oldest...........the Beast.  I would spend a weekend and go to work with my grandfather or help him around the house.  It was from his influence, that I chose my profession.
      August 1974.  Grandpop was a plumber by trade and I loved being around him.  He was one of the first adults I had come to trust................he never said mean things or raised his hand to hurt me or anyone.  He was firm in his convictions, but, you knew he loved you, even with correction and would always let you know it...................something that was almost foreign in my life and that I craved deeply.
       The shop that Grandpop worked at for years, Hicks Brothers was closing up................Grandpop and the secretary were the last employees for a few years.  Mr Hicks kept it open until Grandpop was able to retire.  I was asked if I would like a job until school started........................working on Grandpops last job and cleaning out the shop of stored materials and finally sweeping it clean.  I jumped at the chance to go to work with Grandpop...............it would be one of the last opportunities.  I believe that I was the only one of his many Grandchildren that ever had gone to work with him.
      I loved that month..............Grandmom would make us a hearty breakfast.............bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, orange juice and coffee................. my addiction to caffeine began.   She would pack Grandpop a lunch as she had done for the last forty five years and she packed one one for me too.  Then there was supper...........always complete with everything...............it was like eating at a restaurant every night.    This was alien to me..........I wasn't accustomed to eating like a king and on a daily basis.  I had eaten like this at Thanksgiving and a few times  at the Scalfaro household across the street...........  Mrs Marie was a great cook too.
      The month and my job were coming to a close.  I had picked up a little money in my pocket as well as a couple of pounds added to my bones.  I was to start the eighth grade at Keith Valley Middle School this September.............but the Beast was restless.  Dad was on the road as usual and Mom was.............Mom.  The Beast emerged from his bedroom in his usual surly mood....................on the prowl to strike out at whomever he saw or decided he didn't like at that particular moment.   I was safely away, so he took up the only other prey available................Tommy.  He ended up chasing Tommy all over the house with a hammer................screaming that he was going to kill him.  Mom couldn't stop him, so she had to call the Hatboro police department.....................they were finally able to calm the Beast down and get the situation in hand.  Only thing was,  that the Beast had made a very passionate threat....................... that he would kill me on sight when I returned home.   Given his past history of violence.............especially with me.................it was taken very seriously.  What started out as a month long visit turned out to be year.....................I attended St.  Lukes School in Glenside for the eighth grade.
      The Beast had been seen professionally by psychiatrist as teenager and had been prescribed medicine as well..................we didn't have enough money for medicine, food and booze.............so the medicine got cut.  Instead of dealing with the Beast.....................they removed me.  This decision to keep me safe was offered to me as permanent in my  story "Fork in the Road".
     The first timeI remember going to work with my Grandfather,  I was seven years old..........I cleaned copper fittings with sandpaper.............my little fingers were small enough to fit inside the smaller fittings..............and I felt and was treated like I mattered.............that I belonged.........I was loved.
     Thank You Grandpop................I would have been lost............. without you.
                               Until the next time.................................God Bless.

The Watermark

Hey All,      Like so many, we often live our lives without to much thought or concern of the unknown.  We go busily about our daily routines and plan vacations and family gatherings............then something happens to change evrything.
       June 2006.  We were very happy, when a group of friends volunteered to help us cut up a truck load of logs that we bought for our winter heat supply. We had a family style dinner afterwards.........did I mention Penny is a good cook?   A couple of days later, using Tommys'  logsplitter...............Penny and I split the sections of logs together......................I would split and she depostied the pieces in a pile that I would stack later when we were done the splitting.  It was near dinner time and we were no where near done..............and it was starting to rain.  We decided to finish the next day.................we already had a mountain of cordwood to stack.  It rained with heavy downpours for about three days.
      Charlie and his then fiance, Colleen came down for a visit and dinner during this time.   My Father-in-law called to say that his sump pumps weren't keeping up with the water..............he had two.......one regular size and one high output pump.  Charlie and I grabbed extra pumps that I had on hand for customers when things like this occurred..............we jumped in the pick-up and got on I-81.   We got near our exit when 81 became a parking lot...............for miles.  It seems there were mudslides and nobody was going anywhere.  I called Penny to let her know what was happening.....................we were stuck and she should call her dad.  She then told me our car was underwater................I said "if the cars underwater, then the basements underwater".........she said "it is".  She told me they had manged to get a few tools out of the basement before it went under and that Colleen was still down there in chest high water, looking for things to save.    I told her the electric panel was under water and to get Colleen out of there immediately.............whatever was down there was already lost, forget about them.
    Charlie asked me what happened................I told him I just went out of business.  After an hour, emergency vehicles turned all traffic back in the other direction using the exit ahead of us.   When we got home we parked at the fire hall................it was above the running water.  All you could smell was sewage and fuel oil as the waters rushed by.  It was a river running around both sides of our house...............with a flashlight, I couldn't see Tommys' log splitter...........it was completely submerged....................and all that firewood............completely gone.  We spent the night watching news reports and listened to the bumping on the floor beneath us as our refrigerator, freezer and washing machine bounced of the floor boards under our feet.
     The rain stopped about mid- morning the next day and not long after the sun came out...............and it got warm. Charlie and Colleen stayed to help with the cleanup for a couple of days.  A group from church came after the water went down  and helped us pull everything out of the cellar and Pennys' Gift Shop.  In the story, The Amorous Skunk............Penny closed down.  I built her her a new shop next to our house the next summer................it flooded too. While setting up hoses to wash the mud out of the gift shop.........................I stepped on a board that had washed in from somewhere................it had two spikes sticking out and both went through my right foot with one of them tearing through the side of my foot when I pulled the board off.  So now I'm hobbling around and popping Aleve and cleaning up.  
     We discarded many of our possessions at the curb as did many our neighbors..................it was a sight I pray I never see again.Our car was towed away by the insurance company............my tools were a total loss.  If they had been stolen or burned in fire they would have been covered...........but not by water.  Penny and I cashed in our IRAs to pay our bills during this time.............................we had flood insurance but really is limited in what's covered.  My business phone rang off the hook..............but I couldn't help them.........I could barely help ourselves.  What was I sup'osed to do?  Let Penny clean up all that mud and mess herself?  She had just gotten through her radiation treatments six months before this happened and still had her medicine port in from chemotherapy.  It was September before we had cleaned and sorted everything from the shop, house and small barn.  All the power equipment was stored in the barn...................managed to save some things.  
  The flood set in motion my search for a job with good medical benefit's that would cover Pennys' health care, as she was a considered a cancer patient for five years and to rebuild our spent retirement savings...........................which led me 125 miles from home.................5 days a week.............. for four years .................to the Central Bucks School District. 
                                  Until nest time.................................God Bless.

The Amorous Skunk

Hey All,   We try to live with the best of intentions.............when you care about someone................you do what you can for them.  I have done this for others.........and have had it done for me.
       Penny's long time dream, was to have her own gift shop.   She talked about what she would do and how it would be...................it was all Greek to me.  I knew nothing about the business or anything else..........been in a few to buy my wife something on occasion. 
      It was September 2003.  I had job working for a woman who owned several properties in town.  One of these was a store front on main street.  Penny and I were discussing her gift shop idea not to far in the distant past................I wondered how much the rent would be..................how much to stock the  shop......................things like that.  I asked the woman who owned the property how much it would cost me, when she was paying me for the work I completed.  We struck an agreement and I paid for 6 months rent in advance and thereafter on a month to month basis.............I drove home with the keys in hand.  Penny was getting ready to go out, when I walked up behind her and put my hand out with the keys.   She asked me what they were for.................she had tears in her eyes when I told her.  So the project began..................painting and ordering stock...........setting up displays...................all done by Penny and her Dad.  By mid November the shop, named "Penny For Your Thoughts" opened for business......after many hours of work and preparation.  As we live somewhat rural...........a lot of business comes from summer residents and folks on vacation.  Pennys' shop managed to survive her first holiday season............but things slowed down after.
    It was a Wednesday in the middle of February.    Penny closed up her shop to come home and get dinner ready and then we were off to evening services at church.  She asked if we could stop on the way home and pick something up at the shop that she had forgotten.    No problem...................it's on our way.  It was about 9 PM when we walked in................we started to gag.  It seems that a skunk had taken up residence under the floor.................a crawlspace of laid up field stone.................and sprayed.    It was so thick you couldn't breathe...................everything not made of glass was ruined and had to be discarded.  Insurance wouldn't cover it.....................an act of God, they said.  Three months later..................the building was still uninhabitable.
     We brought home glass and ceramic items, that  we could wash and store.....................the rest was a loss.  Pennys' broken heart could be seen and heard in her tears and sobs..................  I hurt for her.  February is part of the mating season for skunks.   Males travel from den to den looking for receptive females............if she isn't in the mood and he persists..........he gets a face full.  This wouldn't be the end of Penny's dream of a gift shop ...............but that's another story.