Introducing
Billy
Henry’s
Stories
By
Delbert Blickenstaff
My
brother Henry likes to tell stories but he doesn’t like to write them
down. So I decided
to write some of them
and Henry said it was OK.
When
Henry was 5 years old and I was only 3 we decided to run off to the
store to
get candy. We had
been playing in the
front yard and Henry knew the way to the grocery store, only 2 blocks
away. Of course I
don’t remember any of
this because I was only 3.
The
lady at the store knew us because we had been in with Mom. We asked for candy but of
course we didn’t
have any money. The
lady immediately
called Mom and told her where we were.
Then she gave us some candy and told us
to go straight home.
When
we got home Mom was waiting for us with pieces of clothesline rope. She tied one end around
each of us and the
other end around a big tree in the front yard.
Whenever a car would go by Henry would
hide behind the tree but the
people would see me and laugh. Henry
likes to tell this story because it shows how clever he was. I don’t remember any of
that.
A
couple of years later Henry got to visit his friend Gary who lives on a
farm
and has a pony. Henry
doesn’t know much
about riding but will try anything.
So
he decided to ride the pony sitting backward in the saddle, looking
towards the
pony’s tail. He did
OK walking the pony
away from the barn but when he turned the pony around it started
running and
Henry couldn’t control it. It
was all he
could do to hang on to the saddle horn behind him.
The pony was running along the side of
the
road and Henry’s right leg hit a road sign.
It’s a wonder Henry stayed on.
When he finally got off he could hardly
walk.
When
Henry got home he showed his injury to Dad and me and explained how it
happened. Dad
checked his leg carefully and told Henry
that the bones were not broken. Then
he
put some ointment on the scrape and covered it with a dressing. Henry’s leg healed just
fine but Henry says
he’ll never try that again.
Another
story that Henry likes to tell happened just last month. Henry is really good in
Math and his teacher
arranged for him to compete against other kids his age in a regional
Math
contest. It was
held in Celina on a
Saturday and since Dad was not on call he decided to drive Henry to the
contest. It had
started snowing a little
and he didn’t want Mom driving in snow.
I wanted to go along but Dad said no
because they might get stuck in the
snow and have to walk five miles.
He was
joking but I thought it would be fun.
According
to Henry they didn’t have any trouble going up but by 1 PM the snow was
much
heavier and the wind was worse. So
everyone was advised to start home.
When
Dad and Henry got out on 127 going south they realized that the storm
was much
worse than in town. Dad
called it a
white out and he couldn’t even see the road.
The only way he could tell where to
drive was to watch the tops of the
telephone poles and drive half way between them.
They
had to drive slowly, about 15 miles an hour.
A few miles outside of Celina they saw a
car stuck in the snow. The
driver was a woman who really needed
help. Dad decided
that he couldn’t do
anything about the car but he could help the woman.
So he invited her to ride with him and
Henry. When they
got to North Star she asked
to be let out at a restaurant that was open.
Dad knew she would be safe there.
But
there’s more to the story. A
few miles
south of North Star the highway was completely blocked by a big semi
which had
jackknifed. That
means that the truck
was headed west and trailer was headed east, as Dad explained it. So Dad turned his 4 wheel
drive SUV around
and drove back north to the first road going west.
He had to be careful because this road
wasn’t
as wide as 127. But
they finally got on
118 and arrived home safely.
Henry
had lots of fun telling this exciting story first to Mom, Emily and me,
and
again to Grandma and Grandpa. I
wished
that I could have gone along and been caught in our first blizzard.
Billy
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