Tom,
Seeing your web page stimulated a
lot of old memories so I thought I’d do a memory dump
of events as I remember them at the few times in our
youths when we were together. First I have to
apologize because I never could tell you and Steve
apart so my memories don’t differentiate between the
two of you. Also I was glad to see that you are
keeping a chronical, more or less, of Grandpa
Hascall’s life and am more than happy to contribute
whatever I can. I have in my possession his
Parker Brother’s double barreled shotgun, his Colt
Model 1911 .45 ACP and also his Heddon split bamboo
fly rod. I have attached pictures of each
although I only have a cheap Kodak snapshot camera ( a
modern day version of the old Brownie camera) so the
pictures are not high quality. I don’t know much
about the shotgun other than it was well used.
When I was in high school I took it quail hunting a
few times and discovered the safety mechanism was worn
out and unreliable. Since my father died and I
got possession I have taken it to a gunsmith and had
it repaired. The story I got on the Colt .45 ACP
was that it belonged to Grandpa’s brother who was
killed in France (during, after?) WWI and that the gun
was in his personal effects which were shipped
home. It was in bad shape when I got it and I
had to replace the barrel and several internal parts
to make it functional, but now it shoots well and is
surprisingly accurate. The Heddon rod I got when
Grandpa died and I caught a lot of trout with it when
I was in high school but havent’ used it much
since. I also got a split bamboo rod which
belonged to my mother when she was young which I used
some until I broke the tip trying to retrieve a fly I
snagged on a bush. After that I didn’t want to
risk Grandpa’s pole and pretty much stopped using it.
So, now for the memory dump.
The first thing has to do with some of the movies you
have posted – or not. I remember seeing
one of your Dad’s home movies where he caught a
‘possum and put it in the backyard with your two
dachshunds. The dogs would chase the ‘possum and
when they got close the ‘possum would – well, play
‘possum. The dogs would prod it for a while and lose
interest and walk away whereupon the ‘possum would get
up and run away, causing the dogs to give chase, and
repeat the sequence ad infinitum. It was very
amusing. I haven’t watched all the films you
posted but wondered if this was one of them.
I remember one time one of you took
me to a nearby irrigation canal to throw dirt clods at
wasps but the other wouldn’t go because he was
allergic to the stings.
I remember when we were pretty
young, going with your Dad somewhere to kick over
rocks and look for scorpions. Every time we
found something under a rock, your Dad would say “ Oh
look, there is a Centruroides sculpturatus,
better leave that one alone kids” or “OH look, Solifugae
Eremobatidae, no, don’t pick it up.”
Once we were in the backyard by the
pool and someone looked up and there were 2 or 3
vultures circling around. Someone went into the
house and got a bottle of ketchup and we went out in
the field and lay down and poured ketchup on ourselves
to try to lure the vultures down.
When I was a teen I hated wearing
glasses and was not yet blind enough to absolutely
need them so I usually carried them in my shirt
pocket. One night when we were visiting, one of
you guys wanted to impress some girl so after dark we
TP’d her house. Well, I lost my glasses while
performing the dirty deed and her parents found
them. So I had to clean up all the toilet paper
in order to get my glasses back.
I remember one of you guys was
“Spiderman” before Spiderman was cool.
I remember my first experience with
candy rocks was with you guys. I knew you guys
were crazy but I didn’t think you crazy enough to
actually swallow a rock.
I remember, and I won’t tell anyone
if you don’t, but I remember the three of us meeting a
girl in a park one night. One of you knew her
and we all chipped in and found a gas station where
the rest room had a condom vending machine and bought
a condom(s)? for the one who knew the girl. Two
of us went home and one went with the girl and I never
got an after action report.
I remember that picture in front of
the palm tree because your Dad had shredded his hand
on the palm frond thorns trimming the tree that day.
I remember your Dad colluding with
one of you and then turning out the lights and telling
us the story of the irrigation ditch monster and at
the climax of the story, one of you jumped out the
closet where he was hiding and shouted and scared the
hell out of all of us.
I remember when you came to visit
us in that van with the big sign in the window that
said “Warning Radio Active.” Your Dad drove
straight through I guess because he was hot and tired
when you got there and he laid down and pulled his
T-shirt up to cool off and stretched his arms over his
head. And I turned to one of you and whispered
“Wouldn’t it be funny if someone smacked your Dad on
the stomach right now?” And guess what.
Whichever of you got the message went straight into
action and you know what – it was funny – for the 10
seconds before retribution descended on us.
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