Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | This isn`t an orifice, it`s help with fluorescent lighting. |
Date: | Wed, 24 Dec 2003 01:10:17 EST |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
Sitting here by the fire ; watching the little flames lick and wreck havoc on
the dry bark of the summers wood . spreading a conflagration from within that
will soon consume the oak log in hisses and firefights of flickered light
that dance on the heart pine walls of our Creole cottage
Its a cool night after a wet day through the forrest and bayous; low 40's
is my guess
Peanut and Ma ma are asleep ; the tree is up ; and all are waiting for
Santa ..
We don't get snow here much ; and as my bones don't miss it Im all the more
better for it . I do have an old Flyer sled ( thats just about driftwood
(circa 50's ) mounted out on the work shed wall . In case ...In Case of Snow ....
break glass.
Looking at it reminds me of a ride of a lifetime a long time ago ...
One Christmas day eve
up near a cabin in Webster NH
a group of us boys and girls took a ride of a lifetime
the snow you see had risen over the farmers stone fences
and so wellpacked we could fly over them in lift offs of 10 ft or more at
certain spots
So under a clear bright moon and crystal cold temperatures that pinch the
nose
we set off the six of us , on a toboggan ride of hoots and giggles that
careened down hill at perilious speeds .
On and On the toboggan drove downhill swishing snow and loosing a tail
rider here and there over every jump until the last jump appeared unchartered and
craggy with a small yet strong 3" sapling right in landing path.
To abandon the ride right before the stone wall was deadly;
the 4 of us that were still left were now achieving speeds up to 50 miles
an hour.
However to try and chance missing the sapling was suicide, it was dead on
,and
flexable as it was ; it was still a tree .
A instinctive group decision was made mid air somewhere between lift off and
the meeting of the sapling to abandon ship.
It was one of those rare moments in human group dynamics when everyone gets
the same idea all at once.
No debates; no discussion ...you get it or you are going to .get
it...sooner or later
Well like human kind everywhere everyone got it but one intrepid soul.
.
I cannot remember the lead fellows name ; a gregarious youth with a quick
smile and a shock of sandy hair that fell over a boyish face .and a smirk that
said said "what the hell".
After making lift off over the last wall we bailed and plummeted to earth
from the toboggan like a bundle of tossed woolens from a train landing
unceremoniously in heaps on the frosty hillside..
It was there, somewhere in mid air before landing that we heard a
terrible crack followed by the splintering of wood only to see our friend , a
shapeless form cry and disappear head over heels into the frigid night.
We pulled ourselves out of our landing zones and staggered over the drifted
snow to search him out .
All was quiet when we reached him ; with nervous excitement we pulled him out
by his boots and fortunately for all of us found he was very alive but
very dazed and skinned from chin to scalp in a nasty tiretrack of blood..
He was just going into pain and so we packed it in snow. and led him back to
the cabin.over a series of shortcuts until we reached a road that was
somewhat plowed.
He survived but was in alot of pain over the next few days .
Our path back however took us past the toboggan;
and there she was about 6ft high in the air split perfectly in half down the
middle until coming to a sudden stop about midway tru the seating.
We tried to retrieve it but it wouldn't budge the tree held her fast .
Years later in the 80's I had passed the spot on a summer outing; and there
about 10 or 12 ft off the ground hung the toboggan with the tree growing
perfectly round and through the middle of it like some bizarre piece of sculpture
recounting the tale of a Christmas ride of long ago.
I like to think its still there ; like some of the tombstones I work on where
the stone is wrapped literately around by the tree trunnk fusing time and
nature to a paticular moment; before swallowing it whole.
Merry Christmas pin heads Pyrate
--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
|
|
|