Living Life

Living Life

Back in the mid 1960's and through the 1970's, while spending summers visiting my family in Kentucky, thunderstorms would often hit.  My Grandpa, Kit Choate, had a root cellar that many neighbors would go to.  What is funny, is that many of the visitors had cellars of their own.  But it was the camaraderie that existed at Grandpa's that drew the others.

I was never afraid of storms, in fact I looked forward to them, because whenever they hit many people gathered and everyone told the stories of their life.  Many of the guests were born in the early 1900's and it was almost like going back in time to listen to them.  These people were mostly poor but they had lived rich lives.  Theirs was not a daily grind of getting up and going to work, coming home, only to repeat the same the next day.  It was usually about fighting daily to survive. 

At that time, several farmers in rural Kentucky still farmed with mules, and many had horses that they rode daily.  One story I remember was about Dillard Stafford and his son, Jack.  They were out in the woods when a storm struck, followed quickly by a flash flood.  They had one mule with them that they had brought to pull logs from the woods, to take back to the farm. 

The rushing, quickly rising water of a creek, trapped them in spot that was fast disappearing.  The father put his son on the mule, so he could go through the water and escape.  Jack swam the flood water and raced to the nearest farm.  He ran the mule up onto the porch and he and the mule stuck their heads through the front door, the boy screaming at the top of his lungs "Pap's water bound!  Pap's water bound!"

After the shock of the door bursting open, and the sight of Jack and the mule in the front door, the family and several neighbors ran to save the stranded man with ropes and horses.  They rescued him just as the knoll he was on was washed over by the rushing water.

Growing up I loved to read, but the stories told by those old simple folk is what truly developed my love of adventure.  That is what probably led me to join the Navy and travel the world.  We often get caught up in our day to day lives, earning a paycheck to support ourselves in comfort, but life has to have some flavor.  When it comes down to it, when we look back at our lives, it is not what possessions we have accumulated that truly matter, but rather the laughter, tears, struggles, victories, and adventures that make life truly worth living.