What kind of life would I have had if I had been born in a city instead of this wonderland we call Bandera? It's not a very appealing thought.
The very fact that I was abducted by my parents and hauled off to California at the age of a couple months still scares me to this day.
Luckily I was a quick learner when it came to fast talking and I convinced them to come back home after just a few short years. Jesus had a hand in that for sure.
Waking to the sounds of traffic instead of hearing turkeys gobble as they came off their roost along the river certainly isn't a pleasing thought.
My younger brother Eddie and I had our bedroom on the screened-in back porch where we had morning and night sounds far removed from anything available to city folks.
The evening whip-poor-will call is a lullabye that is more relaxing than anything else here on God's green earth. Just imagine that sound mixed with the cool evening air drifting in as we snuggled in under a handmade blanket on that old bed with the squeaky springs.
Currently having my little dog snoring next to me in bed while sleeping in an air conditioned room is about as close as I can come to matching it.
At times when it was cold outside we had trouble getting out from under that warm blanket in the morning to get ready for school. Like with everything else my mom had a quick remedy to fit the situation.
'You boys better get up before I get my broom!' Believe me when I tell you that was not an idle threat.
When walking down that gravel road near the cemetery going to St. Joseph's Catholic School in the mornings I could see the river just beyond and that was pure misery.
Never did the thought of skipping school ever become a serious consideration because I knew the severity of the consequences.
I didn't want to chance getting licks from Father Victor or having a nun thump or pull on my ears before heading home to receive even harsher punishment.
The thought of being banned from the river was unfathomable. That was my real world where I escaped the worry of a test coming up at school or a place to go for mending my broken heart that seemed like a daily event back in the elementary school days.
I mean, where else could I go to smoke a grapevine to help calm my nerves while trying to figure out girls?
Nothing in the city would compare to my Growing Up In Bandera where I could walk out of the classroom go straight home and get my 22 rifle then head on to the river dump.
I'll bet there never was a city boy who could go coon huntin' on a school night either.
