Page 9 - LIfesOuttakes1

Uncle Hickory and the Model T l I was recently asked to make a presentation about journal writing at a genealogy conference. This got me thinking about my own genealogy, which reminded me of a saying of a famous politician. He said there is no reason to go to the work of doing your own genealogy. You could just run for political office, and then those who are opposed to you would do it for you. However, I have, at times, found interesting stories in my own ancestral past. I noted one recently about a great uncle and a great aunt. If it hadn’t been for the guilt two young men felt for what they knew was an undeserved gift from my great aunt, the story probably would have remained untold. For anonymity, I will refer to my great aunt and great uncle as Aunt Hazel and Uncle Hickory, because some might say they were nutty. However, Uncle Hickory and Aunt Hazel were good, down-to-earth people that everyone loved. Uncle Hickory did have one well-known bad habit; he drank too much. In fact, he was fondly known as the town drunk. Everyone knew of his habit and, for the most part, tended to overlook it, due to Uncle Hickory’s pleasant nature. As one story goes, an early snowstorm struck the area the first week of October. (Imagine that here in Idaho!) Anyway, two young men, who had been hunting in the mountains, were fighting their way home through the blizzard, only to find Uncle Hickory lying snookered beside the road. Knowing they couldn’t leave him there, they tossed him into the 4