Summer Job

The year following my accident (1967) was a year of adjustment for me. At the time I would of called this adjustment I would've thought it was just getting on with my life. As an adolescent which thought the world revolved around him and I said I had proof over the last year I really didn't think I was much different than before my accident, I really just thought the accident happened and that was it.

I was a bit confused as to who I was at the time in the respect that I was no longer the kid with the able-bodied. I really didn't have chores are things that I was supposed to do as part of the family. I don't think my family really understood this or if they did they didn't quite know how to let me fit in even then this is probably too harsh and indictment of the lower middle class multi-child family. I've included a picture of me actually painting the fence on the south side of our yard.

But I remember was my mom getting painting equipment out and then expecting my brothers to paint the fence. Actually, it should've been a very quick paint job. Maybe my mother was going to do it but she is pretty busy with everything else in her life at that time. So, I didn't think twice since the materials were out readily accessible to me I just took the initiative moved by stuff out there you can see my transistor radio sitting on the grass behind me. I can't remember if I had told the family I was going to do this it seems like I must have because I couldn't gotten the other materials out there on my own so they must've acquiesced to my pleading to let me do something. As I said this was a job probably would take three or four hours without long for an able-bodied person was they had all the materials to go with. I remember the project taken me all day of course one had the paint the front of the fence as well as the back, to paint the fence correctly. I also remember by the end of the day there was quite a bit of paint on my feet as well as on the grass. No problem on each count.

What I really like about this picture more than anything else, it is one of the only images that I have of the South portion of our farm. I've included a cropped image of the main picture. If you right-click on this portion it would enlarge the picture and you'll be able to see the pasture as well as the tree line at the foot of the New York Canal which ran through our property. That expanse of rocks to the right of the picture in the back is where at one time (before we own the property) there is a break in the canal which flooded quite a bit of the area around about. These were huge stones actually. If you look closely at the top of the ridge there about the trees you can see just barely the desert on the other side of the canal. The New York Canal is a large expanse of running water separating farmland from the desert on this upper bench. We own 2 ½ acres on the other side of the canal which was undeveloped desert, sagebrush there is even an old dump in the gully on our property. There is also a a whole town of prairie dogs we called pickit pins That we used to murder with our 22 rifles on the weekends or whenever we could sneak up to that side of the property.

Sadly, I rarely got back up to the property on you decide the canal in my home projects for limited. I did one other painting project which was painting the outside of the house. My mother complain because nobody was doing the job I decided I would start which I did by the time anybody knew what was going on I had the house or portion of the house painted halfway up all the way around making the family finish the project. I think I just trying to find some validation…