THE HAPPY SPIDER

By

Kent D. Walsh

(Uncle Kent)

I saw a spider crawling from a web above my door,

I couldn’t believe how quick he went from the ceiling to the floor.

Oh he looked so awkward as he wandered upon my rug,

Traveling to his other web where he had caught a bug.

He climbed the wall so quickly until he reached his fine spun net,

Then I watched him in the center where he carefully wrapped his catch.

I moved a little closer while the spider weaved some more,

And I could see him smiling as he labored above my door.

So then I looked around my room with my clothes all in a heap,

At my scattered toys and schoolwork and the bed where I would sleep.

As I looked into his eyes he seemed to give a wink,

Then I began to understand as the spider made me think.

All this mess belongs to me but to the spider it’s clean and bright,

That’s the reason he acts so happy because to him it’s a beautiful sight.

Happy Halloween!

Uncle Kent

DISRUPTED AMBITIONS excerpt --

            "One particular October day—it was Friday afternoon, October 12, 1962, just before the opening weekend of deer-hunting season—the winds were picking up as a major storm was quickly moving in. Fort Vancouver High cancelled all after-school activities, and everyone was sent home. By the time Dan and I reached home, the vicious force of the great Columbus Day storm was already upon us. It was called an extra-tropical cyclone, and it was possibly the most intense storm to strike the Pacific Northwest in almost a century. As the winds howled at almost 100 miles per hour, debris was flying through the air everywhere, and large trees were toppling. So what did Dan and I do? We ran around outside in the midst of the storm having the time of our lives. The storm was so powerful, if you weren’t careful the wind could push you completely off your feet, so we would lean into it, flapping our arms as if they were wings of a bird.

            After watching nearby power lines tumble to the ground, we decided maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to be out in this stuff. So we retreated into the house where all we could do was peer out the windows with our sister Debbie and little brother Corky. As we stood there listening to the news on a transistor radio, the newscaster announced that in the hills near the Washington coast, the wind had gusted to 160 miles per hour. The weather bureau then issued a major warning: “Stay away from the windows; people are being killed by flying glass.” Just about that time a piece of roofing material crashed through the window near where Corky was standing. Well, I must say, even though no one was hurt, it certainly put the fear into all of us, and ruined our fun for the rest of the evening.

            Next morning everything was a total mess. No one had power, and broken and fallen trees, garbage cans, and other artifacts of the powerful storm lay scattered all over the place; the streets were covered in debris. Most of the homes had lost windows, and there was roofing material lying around everywhere. In a period of about twelve hours, between 10 and 15 billion board feet of timber had been blown down in northern California, Oregon, and Washington. According to the news, over 40 people were killed and hundreds more injured by the intense storm. Reports stated that there were more homes and outbuildings damaged and destroyed than the number that had been left untouched. Our neighborhood was no different from anyone else’s; everything, as I said, was a total mess. Almost a half-century later, I’ve never seen anything like it again.

            After my dad had picked some of the junk from our yard, and made sure our house was secure, my brother and I started bugging him about going hunting. We were kids, after all, and had our own priorities. He looked at us as if we were crazy, and then in that calm voice of his he said, “Hunting? Why we’re not going hunting. If we tried we wouldn’t even be able to get halfway up into the hills before we would have to turn around and come back home. The roads are all covered with downed trees, power lines, and all kinds of other junk. Everything is closed, even the gas stations.”

            With the narrow focus of youth, we persisted. It took awhile, but finally he said, “All right boys, get your stuff together, I guess we’ll see if we can even make it up there.” We hurriedly got ready and headed off in Dad’s old beat-up pickup truck.

            As we drove, the scenes we saw were unbelievable. Everywhere, barns and sheds were blown over; many homes were totally destroyed, while many others had lost windows and roofs. Sadly, the collapsed barns had crushed horses, cows, and other animals. Huge trees were scattered about, and even a few cars, trucks, and trailer houses were rolled over onto their sides. Looking along the power-line right-of-ways we could see that many of the giant 500-foot steel towers carrying electricity to the city had been toppled into heaps of scrap metal. The farther we drove, the less confident we felt of making it all the way to the mountains where we wanted to hunt.  

            Surprisingly, despite the devastation, we got to our hunting spot all right. Unfortunately we didn’t see a thing. I mean nothing: I don’t think we even saw a bird. Every living creature was still in hiding from the heavy winds. We did get lots of hiking in though—up the hills, down the hills: plenty of good old-fashioned exercise. I guess the whole thing was a pretty good learning experience for us though. We got to see the results of the power of nature firsthand. It’s hard to imagine what it can do until you’ve seen it with your own two eyes. Put into one word—“Unbelievable!”

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Uncle Kent

LITTLE TRICKSTER

     Four year old Naomi was at the dining room table coloring with her six year old brother, Wyatt and eight year old sister, Isabella.

     Each of them had two different colored crayons.

     Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa were sitting on the other side of the table, talking.

     Wyatt set his crayons down on the table while trying to hear what the adults were saying.

     Looking over at Wyatt, Naomi noticed he wasn’t paying attention to his two crayons.

     Slowly she reached out in front of him, picked up his two crayons and stuffed them into one of her pockets.

     Naomi then tapped Wyatt on the shoulder and in a sweet little voice asked if he knew where his two crayons were.

     Wyatt quickly glanced around the top of the table and under his paper and shrugging his shoulders said, “I don’t know.”

     Then, with a devilish smile on her face, Naomi pulled the two crayons from her pocket and handing them to Wyatt said, “That’s okay, you can have two of mine.”

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Uncle Kent

 The following story was sent to me by a friend and I thought you might enjoy it.

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Uncle Kent

DISRUPTED AMBITIONS excerpt --

            "She wanted to know why I had never attended any of our class reunions. I told her I had attended a couple of them early on, but quit going because none of my old close friends would go and my wife and I wound up sitting in the corner with someone I hardly knew, while everyone else stayed within their own little clique. I told her I really had intended to go to the last one, but kept putting off registering until it was too late. She reminded me that reunions aren’t supposed to be about cliques. They are for old classmates to get back together and find out what has happened in their lives. She made me promise to attend the next one, and I said I would. As we got up to leave I asked whether, if I had any other questions, would it be okay to call, and she said that would be fine.

            After two-and-one-half hours I dropped her back off at work. I walked her to the door, and as we hugged one final time. “I’ll see you at the next reunion,” I said.

            As I drove away I was thinking to myself, “Wow, time had really flown by.” Not just our extra-long lunch, but the years that had passed since high school. Yes, time does take its toll on all of us! But I must say, as I was sitting across that table from Paula looking into her eyes, I could see one thing for sure. She was still just as beautiful as I had ever remembered her to be, both inside and out!"

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Uncle Kent

DISRUPTED AMBITIONS excerpt --

            "After being seated, we continued our conversation, stopping only to order our meal, and then taking a bite now and then. Paula told me how her husband Ron had also been a high-school wrestler, graduating from Hudson Bay High School in 1964. She said they met while they were attending Clark College, and then were married a few years later. Shortly after that they purchased six acres of land and built a log home, doing most of the work themselves. In fact they still live there today. She said years earlier Ron had been in the real-estate business too, but only for a short time, then worked for a title-insurance company, and finally took a position with the Public Utility District, from which he retired a few years ago. Prior to her current job, Paula had worked at an early-learning center for a while and then at a bank.

            At that point I asked a very childish question. It was one those really dumb questions that, once you have asked it, you wish you could take it back. “What did you think of me in high school.” She hesitated. I told her it was okay, be honest. She said “I liked you and thought you were shy; you were nice looking, athletic, very polite, and a gentleman.” Well I thought to myself that’s not exactly what I was really looking for, so then I decided to try it a different way. “Paula, I’ve got to know. Was there ever an attraction towards me in high school?”

            She then answered “No, but probably there would have been if one of us had pursued the other.”

            “Why didn’t you say something?” I had to ask.

            Her answer just about blew me away when she said, “Oh, I was extremely shy at the time.” Then before I could say another word, she came right back at me: “Why didn’t you pursue me?”

            That was an easy one—because I was dumb! I then explained that “Yes, I was very shy, and I just didn’t know what I would say. Besides that I really didn’t think I would ever have had a chance with you anyway.” At that point she just smiled and shook her head like, what a nut."

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Uncle Kent

DISRUPTED AMBITIONS excerpt --

            "A few days before our lunch meeting Paula called again, saying she just realized she needed to take her car into the shop the day of our lunch, and since her husband Ron would be dropping her off at work that morning she wouldn’t be able to meet me at the restaurant as planned. I asked if she would like me to pick her up at the store and she said that would be fine, but let’s make it 1:00 p.m. I told her I would pick her up right in front of her building, and then I described my car. She said to look for a white-haired, very grandmotherly-looking woman. I told her to look for an overweight old-looking guy. We both laughed and said, “See you then.”

            When I arrived at her work I was a few minutes early, so I parked the car, got out, and just kind of wandered around the front of the store looking at the items they had placed outside. After about 10 minutes I began to wonder if somehow I had missed her and maybe she had given up on me. So I walked into the store and there she was, talking with another woman. Looking up she waved and said she would be right out. I went back outside and nervously waited those last couple of minutes until she finally walked out the front door. As she approached I walked up to her and we embraced for a short friendly hug. After getting into the car I gave her a few entries about her from my book so she could see what I had written about her so far, and then a copy of my newly released children’s book. As we drove to the restaurant, there was just so much to say after all of these years that we talked all the way there."

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Uncle Kent

DISRUPTED AMBITIONS excerpt --

            "It was exactly 10 days after mailing my letter, and about a quarter after nine on a Sunday night, when Madeline came downstairs into my office with the phone in her hand. “There’s a call for you.” She handed me the phone and headed back upstairs. I hesitated for a moment, looked at my watch and thought, I wonder who it could be; it’s a little late for one of my agents to be calling me on a Sunday night, so it must be important. But I never dreamed that it might be Paula.

            When I answered the phone a woman’s voice on the other end sounded distantly familiar as she said, “Hi Kent, this is Paula Moss.”

            At first I hesitated, wondering what to say; after all, it had only been 20-plus years since we had last spoken. Then I gained my composure and said, “Hi Paula, thank you for calling.” She told me she was sorry it took so long to call, but because they lived so far up in the hills they go to the post office only once or twice a week, and after receiving the letter they had been so busy this was the first chance she’d had to call. I explained that I was writing a book about my high-school days, and the reason I needed to talk with her was that she was one of the main characters. She laughed, as if wondering why. She told me how surprised she was when she received my letter, and didn’t quite know what to make of it at first.

            We talked for about an hour. It was as though we were dear old friends who just hadn’t seen each other for a while. She wondered about her place in the book. I explained that not only was she the most beautiful girl in high school, but I’d had a crush on her all through those years. She laughed again and then we went back and forth discussing many of the things we both had gone through since our high school days, our jobs, our children and grandchildren. Finally it was a little after 10:00 pm and I said, “Paula, I have so many more questions for you, but we don’t have time tonight. Do you suppose we could meet for lunch in the next week or so?” She agreed, so we set a date for 12:30 p.m., a week from that coming Tuesday at a restaurant located a short distance from the craft store where she worked."

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Uncle Kent

DISRUPTED AMBITIONS excerpt --

            "In an effort to bring a proper conclusion to this book I needed to contact Paula. Over the years I had seen her only once—over twenty years ago when I ran into her during lunch at a restaurant. Even then I didn’t know what to say, but I did find out she was married to a man by the name of Ron Moss, lived in the foothills outside of Vancouver, and had two small children. So when I decided to look her up I first tried the phone book, and as luck would have it, there was no listing. “Well,” I thought, “maybe I can find out where they live and send her a letter.” I went into our county records and found a property owned by Ron and Paula Moss, but their mailing address was a P.O. Box rather than a physical address. I wasn’t sure what to make of that; maybe they had lived there once but moved away, while retaining ownership.

            So I prepared a letter. Not wishing to sound threatening, or like some kind of a nut out of the past or anything, I said simply:

Dear Paula,

My name is Kent Walsh, and the reason for my letter is to find out if you are the Paula (Parkey) that I graduated from Fort Vancouver High School with in 1965. If you are, I would really appreciate your contacting me.

I am currently working on a manuscript for a book I am writing about my high-school days, the life-threatening illness I had right in the middle of it, and how it affected my athletics.

Because many of my old friends, including you, are mentioned in the book, I really could use your help in verifying some of the information I have. You can reach me at: 777-7777, my work number is: 777-8888, or email: kentwalsh@email.com.

Thank you,

Kent D. Walsh

            I dropped it off at the post office and began the wait for a response. I figured it would be several days before it reached her P.O. Box, so I wasn’t too worried at first. But as days five and six passed I began to wonder if she was going to respond; maybe she wasn’t the right Paula, or after all these years maybe she didn’t want to talk to me. Perhaps she and her husband received the letter and thought it was from some fruitcake. Each day I came up with another maybe: maybe they live so far up in the hills they don’t get out much; maybe the letter got lost; maybe she doesn’t remember me; maybe for some reason she can’t respond; the worst-case maybe was, maybe she died. A lot of my other classmates had. After all, this was over 40 years since we graduated. Madeline tried to convince me I should be patient, but it was hard."

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Uncle Kent

DISRUPTED AMBITIONS excerpt --

            "Soon after my divorce from Geraldine I fell in love again. There was this beautiful, young dark-haired woman named Madeline Ranker who, at the time of my divorce, had been working for the same real-estate company as I. Before that time I had known her only on a professional level and thought she was wonderful, but I had a lot of admiration and respect for her on a personal level too. She had four children, Travis, Robert, Jeremiah and a niece named Jade, whom she was raising as a daughter. She also had been through a very difficult marital breakup only a short time before mine.

            Our personal relationship got started one day with a movie. It was a highly popular film, just released, and everyone was raving about how funny it was. Neither of us had seen it, so I suggested we go together. We did, and from then on we became best friends and fell madly in love. We dated for about a year and then married. Shortly after our wedding we bought two-and-a-half acres of land in rural Washington State with a burned-down house on it; with the help of her parents, Jack and Ida Davis, we rebuilt the charred ruin into our dream home, where we still live today. Currently I am the branch manager for one of the top real estate companies in the world."

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Uncle Kent

DISRUPTED AMBITIONS excerpt --

            "From day one it was a rocky marriage. We were both very immature, money was short, and our aspirations were great. Since we never had children, possibly our greatest accomplishment together was the building of a home from scratch. I had never done any type of building before, but Geraldine’s dad had an extensive background in lumber, sawmills, and building. In fact he had built their family home a few years earlier. So with his help and guidance we salvaged used lumber, nails, and any other building material that could be reused, and built a beautiful two-story chalet on 32 acres of land the Falanders owned.

            Shortly after that, Geraldine convinced me I needed to go into a profession where I didn’t have to do shift work, and one that offered a higher income potential than I currently had. It all started when we attended one of my family’s “family get-togethers.” Geraldine had been talking with my cousin Doris Fletcher and her husband Wayne about the real-estate business. Wayne owned his own real-estate company and, with Doris’s help, was doing quite well. If I was ever interested, he said, I should come to his office and talk to him. So with prompting from Geraldine, I went ahead and met with Wayne. The next thing you know, with his encouragement and direction I got into the real estate business.

            In the meantime our marriage continued to go downhill until finally, after over 16 years we realized it couldn’t last any longer. I had always believed that you had to work at a marriage to make it successful. And yes, it’s going to have some good times and some bad. But the problem was, there were a lot more bad times than good, and it was getting worse. So after all of those years together we divorced. It wasn’t pleasant and it wasn’t necessarily what we wanted to do, but it was right. Still today I care about Geraldine, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she still cared about me. But what I learned over the years is it doesn’t matter how much you love or care about someone, or even how wonderful she is; if the two of you can’t stand to live together it just isn’t going to work."

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Uncle Kent