Last year friends went west but I stayed home. This year I must decide, just one more trip or not?
There have been comments in news and Facebook recently about remembering our military personnel and giving them support. One suggestion was to greet the troops coming home and be helpful to them.
I’m an Air Force veteran who retired and came home after being away 22 years. It was a big change coming home! I had mind in serving more time but I was warned by a friend that orders had arrived to send me back to Vietnam. One tour there and one near death experience appear enough, I thought. Also, Florine’s dad, Carl Kelly, was ailing, – her mother, Gertrude, was deceased – so I put in for retirement.
Thus, Florine, our 5-year-old daughter, Amy, and I came back to Georgia and settled in Habersham County. Florine’s folks were just down the road in Banks County and mine were just up the road in Rabun County. We picked an acre lot with a mobile home near Clarkesville and in a few years built a brick house to replace it. In getting it paid quickly I worked at Milliken Textile Plant and later did some real estate work.
As change had been a continuing part of my life it was different to remain in one spot and be able to plan for years ahead. Besides home affairs and jobs, I began to hunt and fish with my father, Neal Justus, and kinfolks from Rabun County. Dad leased a fine tract of land near Athens and we hunted there for years. I had a stand on the “Red Line” – boundary line – that paid off in some fine bucks. Their mounts and I are restricted to one room, where I have my volumes of articles written some 46 years.
Today I still write for an on-line news outlet and a weekly newspaper. I also dabble in poetry which I like to do as poetry helps expand my ability to appreciate God’s creation which supports our lives.
I’ve always loved the American West since Mother had me reading by age six. The stories of Zane Grey and other writers were popular from childhood, and still are enjoyable. More than that, I’ve been blessed with having gone west on 14 two week trips with friends to fish and camp mainly in Wyoming. Once, we took a wild three-week journey on a vast circle across the country to Yosemite National Park, then up to Oregon and Washington, and back to camp a couple of days near Dubois, Wyoming, at Wiggins Fork River. From there we returned to Georgia.
Last year friends went west but I stayed home. Florine was happy as she worries about the effects of such a journey and camping in the wilds on me. This year I must decide, just one more trip or not?
