Breaking News!

Another grandchild was born yesterday.  It's a girl and her name is Willow.  I might have to start a book involving all eight grandchildren now.

Books

I just finished reading the newest William Kent Krueger book,  Windigo Island.  I enjoyed it a lot and heartily recommend it for lovers of Minnesota authors who include local areas in their writings. I've now started Trickster's Point, another Krueger novel that features private detective Cork O'Conner. Loving this one as well.

War and protest

Gabe stared Jack in the eyes.  “There, you see why I saw a shrink and tried counseling until I couldn’t stand it?”  He shook his head again, giving Jack an opportunity to speak.

“You know, I get a little of what you’re saying because, and this sounds stupid, I know, because I’m going to equate fighting in the war to protesting the war back in the states.”

  “The first time I got involved in a protest there had been a bombing the night before at the Mankato Post Office.  Nobody was killed or hurt.  Whoever did it had set it off at night when nobody was working at the Post Office.  The next day I was in class as usual down at Old Main, the old business school.  A bunch of students had gathered and barricaded themselves and everyone else in a section of the building.  The professors just kind of said, ‘sayounara’, and went to their offices and locked themselves in.  I had to pee so I went to the men’s room on first floor where I ended up at the urinal standing next to one of the typical long haired hippie types.  The guy looked at me, and now I could hear the cops pounding on the main doors which this group of students had blockaded with all kinds of crap, garbage bins, benches, etc.  I think they must have even chained the doors.  I was amazed.  The sounds of the police pounding on the doors and ramming them with some kind of battering ram was deafening.  I was kind of shell shocked, to tell you the truth.  Anyway, the hippie guy standing next to me says, ‘When the pigs break through we’re going to hold our ground and fight.’  

“Well, I nodded my head as if I was totally into what he was saying, but I really wasn’t gonna have anything to do with that, so he finished pissing and took off toward where the cops were trying to bust through.  I went the opposite way and somehow, I don’t know where, I found a door I could get out of and left the building and went back to Searing Dorm.”

“My brother, the brave protester.”  Gabe clapped his hands slowly and laughed.

Jack, feeling a little sheepish and embarrassed, continued.

“Well, yeah, I’m not too proud of that, but, honestly, those hippies were going to get their heads bashed in and I just couldn’t see joining them.

A list of books I have for sale as ebooks or paperbacks on Amazon.com

Trust Me Now, published in 2012

Cassandra's Moon, published in 2013 (the sequel to Trust Me now)

The Book Club Murders, published in 2014

All available in Kindle format or paperback.

Back in Gabe's abode

”God, that was a storm to remember.  The eeriest thing was the brown, green, and yellow clouds that were blowing in from that little bay.  It was like nothing I had ever seen before.”

“The only other time I’d seen something like that was in Viet Nam,” Gabe offered.  

Jack perked up as soon as he heard Viet Nam mentioned.

“Tell me more, Gabe.”

Gabe regarded Jack cautiously, before he said, “You know I don’t really want to talk about that.”

“I know, Gabe, but maybe it would do us both some good.”  A long pause ensued as they both sipped on the Weed.  Finally, Jack dug into his back pocket and handed a couple of yellowed pages of hand written notes to Gabe, who accepted them warily.  

Breaking the silence, Gabe said with wonder in his voice,” These are my letters to you from Viet Nam.  I can’t believe you saved them all these years.”  

Jack nodded and said, “Maybe now is a good time to talk about it.”

  Gabe blinked, holding the papers as if he couldn’t decide if he wanted to throw them away or look at them.  Finally, he read the first one aloud:

Tet of 1967.  My unit was sent out to take hill 327 during operation Cochise.  It was just another hill thought to be a VC encampment.  We were dropped from helicopters in the jungle about a klick from the hill and proceeded on foot to take it.  As it turned out nobody wanted the hill until we got there.

With no enemy in sight, we were ordered to set up a perimeter and dig in for the duration.  We dug two man fox holes using folding, entrenching tools and filling sand bags using the dirt dug out of the holes.  These holes were home for the next 31 days and nights.

The days weren't so bad.  We ate in our holes, kept watch, and went out on patrols.  Occasional firefights were the rule.  Constant heat, off and on rain, and poor sanitation contributed to body lice, diarrhea, and jungle rot.  Talk about a bunch of pissed off guys!

Then would come the nights.  It would seem as though everybody in the world wanted our hill.  Mortars, rockets, and hit and run tactics against our perimeter would happen sporadically throughout.

So much more happened here, I just don’t want to write anymore about; I’ll tell you over many drinks some day.

Your brother, Gabe.

Gabe stared off into space and then returned to the next letter and read that one aloud:

We crossed the Pacific Ocean on a ship and hit the beach in Viet Nam in July, 1966.   Night fanfare and a few rockets and mortar rounds were there to greet us.  Temperature and humidity in the 100 degree range and giant Minnesota mosquitoes, lizards, and snakes were also on hand.

All of these things dictated certain sanitations to avoid dysentery, jungle fever, malaria, and a few others.  This is where we first learned about the joyous duty of burning shitters.

We had above ground out houses which could not be placed over a hole in the ground.  Instead, a flap type of door on the rear of the structure gave access to the space under the holes.  In this space were 55 gallon drums cut in half and placed under each hole.  These drums contained 1/3 diesel fuel and 2/3 of, well, you know what.

A detail of young privates would then pull the drums out twice a week and light this odiferous mass and then using long 
sticks would stir until only ash remained.  What a treat!

On a lighter note, two young lads we referred to as Salt & Pepper who had spent the entire shipboard time in the brig joined us on burning detail.  They offered to do the officers territory because none of the rest of the enlisted men wanted to.  They got to the officers territory and immediately tossed burning rags down the holes without first removing the drums.  A beautiful blaze, easily visible across the entire camp was greeted by cheers from some and jeers from those of higher rank.  Needless to say, Salt & Pepper did some more brig time.

One last thing, Bro.  Don’t come over here, no matter what!

Gabe handed the letters back to Jack.

“You got anymore of these?”

“No.  Those were the only two you ever wrote me, so I saved them and figured you would want to talk some day.”  

“Well, a little more to drink, and we’ll talk about it.”  He poured two fingers of the Weed into each glass.  It was beginning to taste better all the time to Jack.

Boundary waters episode

Chapter 7, July 22, 1988

Jack and Gabe paddled the seventeen-foot, lightweight Jensen canoe through choppy waters across one of Insula's widest bays.  Kellan guided his sixteen foot kayak sporting a rod-holder on his right-front gunnel with no fishing pole attached.  He was out for a Sunday morning stroll he had said and  fishing was not part of his plan.  It was different for Gabe and Jack.  Heavy spinners trailed their canoe as they bobbed their way along. 

 The canoe and kayak paralleled each other as they traversed the bay and made their way to an inlet on the northeast section of the lake that would eventually take them to Alice Lake. 

As they reached the inlet, Gabe looked to the southwest.

“I hate to say it guys, but that looks like a storm coming and it’s not a pretty one.  I think we should paddle like crazy back for camp.  We could just make it, I think.” 

Jack and Kellan surveyed the sky, looked at each other questioningly, and then sighed.  They couldn’t see much happening where Gabe had looked, but had seen this from Gabe before.  He had an uncanny knack for reading the sky and being right on when it came time for predicting an “event”.  So, they put the pedal to the metal and hightailed it along the eastern shore back toward their camp.  

Sweat ran down his back as Jack put everything he could into his paddling effort in the front of the canoe.  The Hulas' had been brought up to make the one sitting at the front of the canoe the power paddler.  The occupant of the stern provided less power, but engaged in keeping the canoe on course through adept use of the longer paddle.  

Kellan thrived in situations where he could outshine his older brothers, but he had a difficult time keeping abreast of the lightweight canoe being powered by two men.  He had been a gymnast in high school and college, just missing out on qualifying for the Olympics his last year in college.  Still, his muscular body couldn't keep up with his brothers this time.

They rounded a point and now the two younger Hulas could see the gathering storm and hear the rumbling thunder.  Instinctively, all three put their shoulders harder into each paddle stroke, muscles burning and sweat dripping down their backs as they moved as swiftly as they could to the relative safety of their camp.  

Finally they raced around the last point and into the little bay where they had set up camp.  Low hanging, swirling clouds of green, brown, and yellow rushed towards them.  

"Move it!" Yelled Gabe as they paddled as hard as they could for the sand and gravel beach a hundred yards from their tents.  The wind hit them like a boxer as they jumped from their canoe and kayak and dragged them into the brush for protection.  Turning them over quickly, they huddled under the canoe, holding it down tightly as the wind tried to rip it away from them.  Rain pelted the canoe and them as it was blown sideways by the wind that must have hit seventy miles per hour.  The sound of the kayak being lifted and flung against a tree didn't escape their ears.

And then, just like that, it stopped.

Lifting the canoe over their heads and then turning it upright as they laid it down was surreal.  The wind and rain had vanished leaving water dripping from the nearby bushes and trees.  

Kellan didn’t want to look at his kayak.  The sound of it crunching into a rock or tree was still in his head and he was afraid to find out the extent of the damage.  

He didn’t spot it at first glance.  Walking several feet away from the canoe and turning his head, he spied it fifty feet away, mashed against a huge boulder.  He noticed the top of one of the side walls was bent inward, comforting him little, even though it looked like it was still seaworthy.

Kellan approached the kayak with Jack and Gabe following and grabbed the nearest side wall, lifting and pulling it away from the giant rock it had been slammed into.

After the kayak had been laid on the ground, Gabe walked over and looked at it.

“If it doesn’t leak, it looks useable.”  

Gabe grabbed the handle on the end of the kayak and dragged it to the beach, launching it into the now calm, little bay.  After some maneuvering he arranged his body into it and just sat, checking the bottom for leaks.  

Several minutes later, he called out, “Looks good, no leaks.”

Kellan breathed a sigh of relief as Gabe stepped out of the kayak and dragged it to shore.

“I think we were lucky,” Kellan said.

“No.  You were lucky,” said Gabe.  “We’d have left you here.  After all, it is your kayak.  But, seeing how you’re our brother and all, we’d come back for you sooner or later.”

“Gee, thanks, Bro.  You're a real human being.”

“Never claimed to be one of those.”

Jack jumped into the tit for tat, “We knew you were close, Gabe, but always a little suspect.”

After cleaning up the campsite, which had been littered with cooking utensils, forks, knives, and bowls, the Hula brothers took the food pack down from the tree it had been hung in and gorged themselves on cheese, bread, and summer sausage.

Seminar with Grant Blackwood

We met from 9-5 in the library with author, Grant Blackwood.  It was a great listening and hands on experience.  I came away with a great deal of respect for Mr. Blackwood as a presenter, writer, teacher, and human being.  Many tools were presented to enhance writing skills.  All of them were easy to put into practice and very helpful in dealing with writers' block and generating ideas for writing.  I'll expand upon those in later posts.

In case you missed an earlier post of mine, Grant Blackwood has coauthored books with Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, and at least one other author whose name I'm having a difficult time remembering right now, but he's pretty famous as well.  Blackwood has also written his own stand alone novels which are in the action/thriller genre.