Henry County Times

OPINION The Henry County Times Page 4 March 21, 2018 “One of the greatest gifts I've ever gotten is my daughter.” ~ Ace Frehley “Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” ~ Bruce Lee We all have memories that never leave us. One such time for me took place over fifty years ago while I was home one afternoon by myself. I was probably around 12 years old at the time. My dad had a pis- tol that I admired but he would not let me hold it while loaded and shooting it was out of the question. The only time I remember him using it was down at our lake when muskrats would start digging holes and dad would convince them to go elsewhere. I knewwhere he kept the P38 pis- tol but I never touched it by myself. I don’t remember why I was home alone that day but I thought that I would try to find it and take a closer look. My parents had walk- in closets next to each other. Hers was on the left and his on the right. When you walked into his he had his clothes hanging on a rack and on top of that were two shelves at the top of the closet. I could not reach either shelf so I went to find a stool to reach them and just maybe I would find that gun. I could see the bottom shelf and there was no gun there. It must be on the top shelf, I thought. I de- cided to run my hand along the top shelf and see if I could feel any- thing that felt like a pistol. Down one side, no gun. I went to the other side and all of of a sudden I felt a cold metal object. This must be it, I thought. And it was. I slid it over to the side and very carefully grabbed the gun and stepped down off the stool. I couldn’t believe it. I was standing there - just me and the P38. The first thing I did was to look up into the handle. I knew it had a clip with several bullets in it, but the clip wasn’t in it. It didn’t matter because I wasn’t planning on shooting it anyway since I didn’t know how. I just kept looking at it and holding it when I thought it was time to put it back up. My fin- ger was on the trigger and I won- dered how it might feel to pull the trigger. Since I thought there was no bullet, I thought what could it hurt. I did not know to look in the chamber at the time. I pointed the gun down at an angle, pulled the trigger and bang, the gun went off. First of all my ears were ringing and I had never felt my arm get kicked like that be- fore and you could smell the smoke and gunpowder. I was scared to death. Number one I knew that I could have easily shot myself, but thank goodness the bullet lodged in the wall, I thought, and nobody got hurt. Very quickly I put the gun back where I had found it, took the stool back to the kitchen and left the room. No one was home but me, so no one heard the gun go off. I thought that was the end of it. That was the end of it as far as I was concerned. The only damage I saw was a small hole in the wall, but my dads clothes hid that and the fact that I was shaken up a bit. The next few weeks everything seemed normal around our house except I kept noticing different bug exterminators were showing up at our house, but I didn’t think much about it. Then one day when I got home from school, there was a car parked outside our house with a sticker on the side that read University of Georgia and a man was inside our house going through mom’s closet, which I thought was strange! At this point, no one had asked me about the gun at all and I had not said a word. Here is what had hap- pened - when I pulled that trigger and the gun went off, it went through the wall that divided my parent’s closet. My mother had her best clothes hanging on the right side of her closet. When the bullet went through the first wall it kept going and it started on one end of her clothes, went all the way through them, came out the other side and lodged in the wall on the far side. The bullet passed through every item of clothing. The man from UGA was a spe- cialist in big rodents. They thought that some large rodent was eating away on my mom’s clothes. The man found the bullet lodged in the other wall. At that point the ques- tion was asked had anyone dis- charged a firearm in the house. For some reason I was the likely can- didate because I was so fond of that gun. What saved me was my parents realized that I could have been hurt and they were glad that no one was. When my mother tried on some of her clothing the morning after I fired the gun, she discovered a good sized hole in one of her dresses, but was in a hurry. She picked out another outfit the next day and had the same problem. Fi- nally upon inspection of several pieces of her wardrobe she discov- ered damage in all of the clothes hanging in that location. That is My dad’s closet and the P38 I titled this column Daughters for obvious reasons - I don’t have any sons. When the first daughter was born it didn’t make any difference that she wasn’t a son. I was ecstatic that she had all of the necessary ap- pendages and that both she and her mother had come through the birthing ordeal without any prob- lems. Of course, if there had been problems I probably would not have known about them because at that time the hospital birthing process was shrouded in mystery and the father was not allowed to be a part of it. Also, I was not even allowed to see SWMBO (SheWho Must Be Obeyed) while she was in labor. I was restricted to the waiting room for hours wondering how things were progressing. In other words, this was in the dark ages, some 57 years ago. My, how things have changed. I, along with other family members, have been present when our daughters have given birth to a grandchild. In fact, I was even al- lowed to assist in pulling these newborns into the world. With three of our four daughters adding grandchildren to our family, I be- came somewhat of an expert on daughters. Occasionally, someone would ask how I survived living with five women. The question always puz- zled me. It was a wonderful and joyous time. Our home was filled with laughter and the constant pa- rade of their school friends who often spent the weekends with us. In some instances, our home be- came a shelter for those who could not, for many reasons, live in their own home. It was not unusual to see a strange girl walking through our home causing me to ask her name. However, SWMBO was al- ways aware of who they were and why they were visiting us. Many of these girls keep in touch with us today even though they now have their own families. It was a blessed time. But, living with five females had it’s own set of challenges. It seemed to me that once a month the sun, moon, planets and all of the stars in the universe were aligned in such a way as to encour- age me to spend a lot of time in my basement workshop. It was during these times that the thermostat took a beating. It was either too warm or too cool. To counter the complain- ing, I went to our local hardware store and bought an additional ther- mostat. I then mounted it next to the existing one with a note taped to it stating it was broken and the new thermostat should be used. Our daughters and SWMBO were delighted that I was making it pos- sible for them to be comfortable. It was not until a family dinner some 35 years later that I revealed the new thermostat had never been connected. Aman with four daughters and no sons misses out on many of the things fathers with sons do. I tried the rough outdoor camping I had done as a boy, but it was not well received. SWMBO suggested I should try adjusting my thinking and do things that were more, and I quote here, ‘female oriented.’ I had already taught each of them to check the oil in their cars, change a tire and how to deal with car sales- men. I cannot remember any bad times during their growing up years except for a few bumps in the road. I feel doubly blessed to have five wonderful women in my life, some of whom now have to nego- tiate their way through the child- rearing years. Occasionally, I still wonder what it would have been like to have sons. But, I wouldn’t trade my life living with five women for anything. Watch for Daughters: Part Two. Ralph Thomas is a Locust Grove resident and the author of Doing Great, but Getting Better and Get- ting Old Can be Fun. You can reach him at ralph_thomas@bell south.net Daughters: Part One see Jeff, page 10 RALPH THOMAS Columnist JEFF REEVES Columnist The Henry County Times Published faithfully each Wednesday by The Henry County Times, Inc. 48 Racetrack Road McDonough, GA 30253 770-957-6314 www.henrycountytimes.com Presorted Standard Postage Paid At McDonough, GA 30253 Postmaster, send address changes to: The Henry County Times P.O. Box 2407 McDonough, GA 30253 The Henry County Times Publisher Mickie Jackson Editor Seth Jackson Office Manager John Jackson Advertising Mickie Jackson Nick Vassy Graphic Artisté, Webmaster Nick Vassy Contributing Writers Jimmy Cochran Kathy Henderson Beverly Hills Jeff Reeves Ralph Thomas Beverly Wittler The views expressed in Letters to the Editor and on the Opinion page are not necessarily those of The Henry County Times . 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