The Story Behind One Of My Stories
But first - I picked up an illness about 10 days ago that has knocked me on my ass. It started as a head cold and then sunk down into my chest. Given my past health issues it’s a place that is always dangerous for me. I went to the doctor and she has given me a few prescriptions, the big one for me is prednisone. Yes I am aware of what it is. Being an asthmatic for the last 40 years every now and again I need to take this to clear out my lungs and make it easier to breathe. I have been short of breath for the last week even though I continue to take my regular meds. She sent me in for a chest x-ray and it came out negative, meaning everything is good. I am finally starting to feel better but it’s going to take a while.
The Raccoon Brought Nunchucks - Don’t Go Quietly - Greg Stones
I saw this cartoon last week and I really identified with it. Some of you know about my health issues over the years and somehow I keep bouncing back. I love the sentiment, “The Raccoon Brought Nunchucks. Don’t go quietly.” And trust me, I’m not going anywhere.
I don’t know much about the artist, Greg Stones (gregstones.com), but I do like some of his work. Check it out if you have a chance.
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For some reason I don’t write a lot about my writing and I’m not sure why. Let me attempt it here and lets see what happens.
The final story in my last collection, Dennis Barton Is A Bastard And Other Stories, is titled Mr. Fifer.
This story combines what I know about one of my Grandfather's and a Step Grandfather. I never met my Grandfather and only met my Step-Grandfather once when I was really young. I don't remember him. This particular story concerns my Mother’s Father and her Stepfather. They never knew each other to my knowledge.
I remember the stories my Uncles told me about both of them. (My Mother never talked about her Father and I believe was off at college when my Grandmother remarried).
I combined both men’s stories into a single story, and put this together based on what I had heard, knew for a fact, and some stuff I just made up. These guys were both characters and no strangers to loss.
My Grandfather was not a nice man. He was an alcoholic and when he drank he was mean, possibly violent. He was also an amazing finish carpenter. Many people told my uncles that he taught them a lot about carpentry and his work was first rate. Growing up he had a rough life. His father (my great grandfather) was, in addition to being a “Man of the Cloth”, very religious, and a mean drunk as well. He apprenticed my Grandfather as a cooks assistant in a remote logging camp when he was eleven years old. At sixteen my Grandfather wanted to join the Mounted Police (he was Scottish, born in Nova, Scotia, Canada), and needed his father’s signature to join at a young age. His father refused and sent him back to the logging camp. He eventually left, met and married my Grandmother, and after my Mother was born they emigrated to the US, around 1929.
It sounds like my Step-Grandfather had an amazing life. When he was a young man, he and a business partner put some money together and purchased a small ranch in Mexico where they broke horses for other ranchers until General Zapata’s troops showed up one day and gave them 15 minutes to gather their things and one horse each and leave Mexico, or they would be killed. He had other adventures as well and to learn about those you need to read the story.
So I combined what I knew, took a few liberties with their lives, and came up with this story that starts with a dying man in a hospital bed and the conversation he has with his stepson. It is a story I am proud of. I really like the way it came together.
This is a reading of the first few pages of the story and a crowd I added, because why not?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGEr0h67IL0
If you would like to read the entire story here is a link to a pdf - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XT2RoYKgwR7rPNHBjKkOdWH6bdXQeU2-/view?usp=sharing
Once again, this story appears in my collection of short stories, Dennis Barton Is A Bastard and Other Stories. www.angryfilmmaker.com
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