Winter Is My Middle Name

Chapter 4

February ended the January thaw. It started snowing again and got colder. Tomorrow was Groundhog Day and Punxsutawney Phil, up on Gobbler's Knob, better see his shadow! Then we will have six more weeks of winter. I could hear my father now, "Fiddlesticks! That's all a bunch of poppycock. Six weeks from today, it will be the first day of spring, whether he sees his shadow or not!"

My father thought this was all a lot of nonsense, all these people standing out in the cold waiting for a large rodent to come out of his burrow in zero degree weather. Then the Grand Sage of the Inner Circle would hold Phil up and he would whisper in his ear whether it would be a "long winter" or an "early spring." Then he would run back in his burrow, wouldn't you?

Phil did see his shadow and there will be six more weeks of winter! Yea!! In another week on the second Sunday of February the Stump Creek Sportsman's Club would have their yearly "game feed." The National Guard would supply the trucks and drivers and the sportsmen would load the trucks with bags of corn. Then they would drive up into the mountains and put the corn out for the animals. The snow was always the deepest this time of year, and the animals would have a hard time finding food. This would help them make it through the long winter.

The week before this, my father and I, and "Deadeye," another club member, were going to a farm over in Ryot to get the corn. Deadeye had a five-ton dump truck that he used to deliver coal when he was laid off from the mill. He was a luterman at the Coke Plant. He sealed up the coke oven doors with mud. I knew all this because that was all he talked about as we made the two-hour trip. I was becoming an expert on Coke Plant operations. I think if I worked there, I would want to operate the pusher. This sounded better than the other jobs like "lidman, larry car operator, coal handler, tar chaser, and mudman". Yes, I knew them all after this trip. The way he described the Coke Plant, I could almost smell the place. He said it smelled like a barrel of sauerkraut gone bad with a few dozen rotten eggs thrown in to it.

Deadeye was liked by everyone. Well, I imagine almost everyone; I am sure some of the people he pulled his pranks on did not appreciate him. He was a war hero, storyteller, great hunter and fisherman, and above all, the greatest prankster of all time!

Just then I thought I could hear someone off in the distance, calling, "Danny! Danny!" but I couldn't see anyone. It sounded like it was coming from Cookietown. Those guys over there would not know that I was called Dandy now. I hoped they were not coming after me because of what happened at the pond last month.

Then my father started laughing uncontrollably! I had no idea what was so funny. Then I heard it again, "Danny! Danny!" Then Deadeye started laughing; he couldn't control himself. I knew then that something was up. As it turned out he could throw his voice without moving his lips and he was an expert. He really had me going.

"You should have seen the look on your face. I thought you heard a ghost or something," hollered Deadeye while laughing at the same time. He didn't know I thought those goons were coming after me. Well, at least everyone else was in a good mood.

"Johnny," (that's what everyone called my father, it was short for "Johnny Bull" - it was like saying "Uncle Sam",) "did I ever tell you about the time I went to Akron to work when we were laid off here?" asked Deadeye.

"Oh, I heard you were working in a lorry factory," answered my father.

"No, not a lorry factory; I don't even know what a lorry is. No, I was working at a place that made truck beds. I was living with my sister and her husband and I got a job there. Well anyway, this place wasn't unionized and we didn't make a lot of money. So I told the owner that if he didn't give us a raise, I was going to pull the main breaker to the place and we were all walking out."