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I am a grey headed old Bear now, with four adult children and seven wonderful grandchildren. Far too often now in my Fifties, I've had to explain to my grandkids why Papa has a "bowling ball" head! It's my cousin and best friend Kerry's fault (the pic above is one he sent me when we were both on our missions - he was in Austria and it was taken on 5 January 1973). Who could think that the calm, docile young man in the photo above could in reality be such a fiend with a rake! Yes - a potential hole-in-the-head best friend. In order to not disgrace him, I have refrained from the retelling of this story - but my oldest has bugged me for the details - so here goes.
I was honored to stay during the summers with my grandparents, Ken and Edith or with my Aunt and Uncle, Lorraine & Mark. Those were always times of great fun. We played in the high mountain desert country close to Dugway Proving Grounds in a community founded by these Kinsmen and others as "Terra". We enjoyed playing army, cowboys and Indians, or just running around chasing snakes, lizards, and rabbits in the desert sand and sagebrush. My closest buddies were my cousins, Christine (awww, the Beautiful Christine) and Kerry. They were always fun as they constantly were bugging the adults and their siblings - especially Elaine (I've probably misspelled her name). I remember Kerry waking me up from a nap one day at Grandmas' by rubbing the bloody end of a gardner (or is it gartner) snake against my face (he was a devil, that Kerry - full of mischief and life - in later life, he and I would specialize in robbery of his parents HIFI console and take it to my house - parents were out-of-town, and listen to the Doors LA Woman at FULL VOLUME!). I digress - the Beautiful Christine and Kerry and I were playing one day and Kerry as usual was making some dry but warped remarks about my looks (beauty may be only skin deep - but ugly goes clear to the bone) and I recited the old standby, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me!" Christine and I combined against Kerry then in a discussion about some horse that was corralled in the neighborhood (if you can call a desert community that). At any rate, Kerry left Christine and I - MAD!
Christine and I were walking along - minding our own business and Kerry come running after us with a RAKE! Yes, a big (to a kid) wooden handled, metal tonged rake. We really didn't think he was serious about using it on us (he is such a dry, subtle wit that you have to really be connected on his beam to appreciate his profound humor), so we just laughed at him. He had this odd, funny twisted grimace on his face and elevated the rake and stoutly approached me. As he uttered an, "Argghh!", he slammed the rake held above his head DOWN onto my head! We didn't think much of it at the time - I just bled for 8 days. But in an older age now, I find that their are three distinct holes on the top of my head from those rake tongs. My grandkids grossly mock me to this day... so if you ever feel I have too big a head - please call cousin Kerry and thank him for the swelling - CERTIFIED TRUE STORY! Call Christine and verify - if she has any memory left (Ha, ha, ha - just joking).