Whoa!! Now!

    Hang on cause we totally skipped a few Millington years.


    Yo unc! Do you remember picking cotton with me behind the house on Arnette Place? Lawn mowing wasn't getting enough work so we asked the guy (was he our landlord while waiting on our house to empty?) down the road if we could pick cotton. Liked to killed us! what'd we make 50 cents each? For the whole day!

    How bout trips to Shelby State Forest & swinging on the vines?
    Here's one. Dad & Duffy taking us all, five boys, fishing in Duffy's boat on the Mississippi. We get to the boat launch and unload the car & boat. Duffy backs down the ramp and is stopped for a reason I can't recall and he gets out of the car forgetting to set the brake. The boat & car wind up way down in the Mississippi. Turns out there was a very steep & deep drop at the end of the ramp. Could have been what he was being told when stopped.

    OK so now I'm on a roll. It was in the fall. An overcast Saturday with just enough wind to make you pull you collar up. Dad had promised to take you and I hunting and Dad kept his promises. He spent Friday night showing us how to clean the guns, plenty of oil helps get rid of & prevent rust. A 4-10 shotgun from his youth and a Springfield bolt action single shot .22 caliber, his very first gun. Well I don't think we were quite sure what we were hunting. Coulda been squirrel dunno not sure I cared. I had a gun in my hands. The single shot .22 Calibre. Ray had the 4-10 shotgun. We were walking in single file, Dad, Ray then me, through rows of cotton towards a wooded island. Seemed all cotton fields had these and our suspicion was there'd be critters to shoot in them. Any way for some reason (I personally remember a bird)Ray decides to cock the shotgun. This is done by pulling the hammer back with your thumb. As ray is cocking the gun he's raising it(in anticipation of 'Baggin a Bird')and as he reaches the level of the top of Dads hat his thumb slips of off the freshly oiled hammer. Blew Dads hat off. When he turned around there was look & tongue a plenty. We returned to the car & Dad never took us out with loaded weapons ever again.
     P.S. Both of those guns are in my shop.