A Lucky Man

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The summer of 1954, after graduating from high school, I was working at Howard Motors, our Chevrolet/Buick dealer there in Augusta, Kansas.

My Dad, Al Thomas, was a self-employed bricklayer. One morning, he told me that the job he was starting that day would be to apply a brick wainscoting to a home that was being remodeled. He also told me he had hired Virgil to work as a helper for him. A bricklayer’s helper mixes the mortar and keeps a supply of bricks close at hand to the building.

Dad and I both liked Virgil. He was a local farmer, in his late thirties, who was a hard worker with a sense of humor. If there was no work to do tending the crops, Virgil would hire out as a day laborer to pick up a little cash.

The day Dad mentioned the new job and Virgil, I had gone to the 7th Street Café for lunch. After a bowl of chili, I still would have time to stop by the job site and say hello to Dad and Virgil. I got there and greeted and shook hands with Virgil. I said, “How’s it going, Virgil?” He scratched his head and said, “Well, David, this drought is mighty tough. The well is about to go dry.  The corn is burning up in the field. The cow isn’t giving milk, and the hens aren’t laying. I’m lucky to have something to fall back on.”  “What’s that?” I asked. “My ass,” he replied.

Dave Thomas

12/12/2024

A Wonder of the World

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We are a couple of days past Thanksgiving, and it has just occurred to me that I have a turkey story. It doesn’t amount to much, but it’s part of my history so what the heck?

After high school, I worked for a couple of years at Howard Motors, our local Chevrolet and Buick dealership in Augusta, Kansas. My boss was the Service Manager, Kenneth Markley, a heck of a nice guy. I believe it was in the summer of 1954 that Kenny came up to me and asked if I would like to make a weekend trip to Minnesota and back. Kenny’s wife was from there, and she and their two kids had spent a few weeks up there during the summer. Kenny was going up to get them and wanted someone to help with the driving. I said “yes” immediately. We left work at 6:00 P.M. and went home to clean up. Kenny picked me up about 7:00, and off we went.

Kenny drove the first few hours and then turned it over to me while he slept. I had never driven much after dark and certainly had never gone very far. It was a new experience for me, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The Interstate Highway System hadn’t been built yet, so we were driving on the U.S. highways, all two-lane roads.

Kenny’s car was a 1953 Chevrolet, Model 210 with a 6-cylinder engine and standard transmission. Kenny had only had it for a few months, and it still smelled like a new car.

We drove all night and some time, after dawn, Kenny told me we were getting close to our destination. We soon came to the official sign. It read “Brewster, Minnesota” in big letters. Below it and a little smaller, it said “Turkey Capitol of the World.” My gosh! If I had known we were going to such an important place, I would have dressed up a little instead of wearing jeans and cowboy boots.

We ate breakfast and visited with the family and then slept a few hours. I then walked to the downtown area and found a store that was open. I remember it as a general store, but it had a pool table in the back. I drank a Coke and shot a game of pool with myself. The rest of the afternoon was spent visiting with the family. We spent the night and returned home the next day. It was a great experience for me, and I was especially glad to learn where turkeys come from.

Dave Thomas

12/5/2024

Something Serious

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Something Serious

Pat had put out food for the crows and had talked to them for a while. She went back in the house and was watching TV. Suddenly, she heard a commotion outside. She looked out the window and saw that there was a fight. One crow was flat on its back while another was beating it with its wings and pecking it with its beak. The bird on the ground was squawking non-stop and trying to get up. Meanwhile, the rest of the crows continued to eat except for the crows that were watching the fight. After a bit, the two onlookers walked over and crowded the attacker out of the way. The crow on the ground got to his feet and made a couple of hops and took off. The attacker took off, too, and flew in the opposite direction. We had no idea what this was about.

Dave Thomas

11/22/2024

Spreading the Word

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Spreading the Word

It’s really interesting that the crows recognize Pat and Terri and their cars. They follow them and sometimes fly ahead of them where they dip down and fly low so the ladies will know it is their birds.

The crows also communicate well with each other and let the whole group know what is going on. The following is a little story that illustrates both traits.

Terri had taken Pat to the doctor and to the lab to get a blood draw prior to the next day’s chemotherapy.  Returning, when they were a couple of blocks from home, they spotted two crows. One of the crows immediately increased his altitude and flew over the house and out of sight. Terri says, “I’ll bet he is going to tell his friend we are on the way home.” The crows know that Pat provides food and water, so it’s a good place to mooch a snack. The other crow flew in front of the car and dipped low so they would be sure and notice him. Then, he flew off in the direction of home. Pat says, “He will probably be on the roof when we get there.” Sure enough, when they got to the house, one crow was on the roof and 12 more crows were landing on the driveway and surrounding the car. All of Lame Foot’s gang had gotten the word.

Dave Thomas

11/14/2024

Miscellaneous Crow Stuff

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Miscellaneous Crow Stuff

-Pat saw Lame Foot beat the tar out of another crow. He used his beak as well as his wings to give the other crow a severe thrashing. This other guy must have been an outsider trying to horn in on the lunch Lame Foot and his group were having.

-Terri was at the house on one of her frequent visits to help us with something. Ready to leave, she came out and saw two crows sitting on top of her car. They took off, yelling at the top of their lungs, and headed for a nearby tree. Terri backed out of the driveway and drove off. The birds came flying in behind her and followed her down the street, yelling all the way. She said she was pretty well chastised for interrupting whatever the crows were doing.

-The crow known as A-hole is apparently still being a bad boy. The other morning, he landed on the driveway and Lame Foot and 4 other crows jumped on him and beat the tar out of him.

Dave Thomas

11/07/2024

I’m Prayin’

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I’m Prayin’

This coming Tuesday, November 5th, 2024, our United States will hold the most important election in our history. I pray that we will awaken Wednesday, November 6th, still living in the greatest democracy the world has ever known. Our good fortune would send Kamala to the White House, and Trump could slide back under a rock.

A Better Word

The card-playing folks should scrap one of the words they use. For example, instead of saying “A straight trumps two pair,” they should simply say “A straight beats two pair.”

Dave Thomas

10/31/2024

Lame Foot and Others

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Lame Foot and Others

Several months ago, Boss Crow came to the house and made contact with Pat. She fed him, and we have been in the crow business ever since. After the first session, he always brought two other birds with him. So, the three daily visitors were the Boss Crow, the crow with the mangled foot, and a smaller crow that we took to be the mate of one of the others. It was just the three of them for several weeks, and then no one showed up for a while. After a few weeks the crows returned, and there were five of them. The two additional guys were a little smaller, so we assumed the birds had been nesting and that these were a couple of offspring. As the days passed, there were sometimes three, sometimes five, and, once in a while, as many as twenty-one.

We realized that Boss Crow was no longer with the group. We had always figured him as a front man, so we thought he must be our looking for human benefactors to feed his crow friends. The guy with the mangled foot has taken over the leadership position.

Pat has simplified things by calling him Lame Foot. Lame Foot is definitely in charge. If Pat hasn’t put the food out by the time he arrives, he gives the four caws to get her attention and to summon the rest of the group. If the others don’t show up within a couple of minutes, he gives the call louder.

Pat and Lame-Foot have become good friends. He sometimes drops in several times during the day. He makes sure that Pat notices him by flying low past the living room window or by flying over the patio. On these visits, he ignores the food and water as he is just there to talk. Pat tells him a story, just as she would for you and I. He listens carefully, and then tells his story. When he is done, he flies away.

It’s too bad that he has the deformed foot, but that pretty much makes him the only crow that can be easily identified. If it’s just three crows, they are Lame Foot, Bouncer, and Clucker. The crows seem to come now in groups of three or twelve.

Bouncer- Pat calls this guy Bouncer because rather than walking on the driveway, he bounces. It’s as if he had springs on the bottom of his feet. Pat says that when she talks to him, he sometimes gets excited and bounces even more.

Clucker- This is the guy that always clucks like a chicken. He must have been hanging out in someone’s barnyard and talking to the chickens. Clucker sometimes follows Pat to the grocery store and back. When she gets out of the car, she can hear him clucking to let her know he is there.

A-Hole- This guy just started coming around, and Pat thinks he is a troublemaker. He doesn’t seem to have any friends as he is always by himself. When he comes in, he spends a lot of time getting a big drink of water. When he is ready to fly away, he hops up on the edge of the bowl and pushes off. This always causes the bowl to turn over, thus spilling the water. That means no one else can get a drink until Pat refills the bowl. Pat thinks he does this on purpose so the others can’t get a drink. For this reason, she calls him an a-hole. I agreed until I thought about it. I believe the rim of the bowl feels more like the limb of a tree, and it feels more natural to push off from it than the concrete driveway. I relayed my theory to Pat, and she shot it down. She said that one afternoon that crow dumped the water bowl three times in a row. Our son, Doug, happened to be here and he refilled the water bowl each time. There is no question about it, that crow is an a-hole.

Dave Thomas

10/24/2024

Cluck Cluck Says the Crow

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One of Pat’s crow friends seems to be bilingual. It speaks both crow and chicken. We know the crows are great communicators among themselves and I believe they want to talk to other species. Pat’s crows talk to her and then listen when she speaks. Among their other interesting traits is the ability to recognize people and cars. They also will follow or escort someone they know. This next little story illustrates some of these characteristics.

Pat had to go to the lab for a blood draw prior to her next chemotherapy session. She hit the remote and opened the garage door. As she headed for the van, she heard a sound like the clucking of a chicken. She smiled knowing that it was one of her crow friends talking to her. She backed the van out of the garage and headed down the street. She noticed the crow flying ahead of her. When she got to the corner, the crow was sitting in a tree and waiting for her. She turned the corner and headed south and, again, the crow was flying ahead of her. In a few minutes, she was at the hospital and pulled into the multi-story parking garage. She lucked out and immediately found a disabled parking spot. She parked and got her walker out of the side door of the van. She again heard the clucking of a chicken, and as she got to the rear of the van, saw a crow walking around on the concreted behind it. She thought it was pretty neat to have had an escort on her trip. When she left the lab and went home, she didn’t see the crow.

I should digress for a moment and tell you that our daughter, Terri, takes Pat and I to our Dr. appointments. She keeps a wheelchair in her car to transport us to and from these things. Pat has back problems and can’t walk very far. After chemotherapy, she is so doped up that she is half asleep, and it’s not safe to walk. My balance is shot, and I have fallen and broken and cracked enough bones that I’m not safe either.

Getting back to the story, two days after the lab trip, Terri was driving Pat to her chemo appointment. As they drove to the hospital, Pat was telling Terri about the crow that clucked like a chicken and followed her around. When she finished, Terri said, “Sure, Mom,” and we’re not positive, but she may have rolled her eyes.

Terri pulled into the parking garage and was able to get the same disabled spot that Pat had used. She got out of the car and went to the back to get the wheelchair. Pat joined her and suddenly exclaimed “Here’s my proof! Look behind you!” Terri turned around and there she saw a perfect circle of a white bird dropping that contrasted very nicely with the dark blue of the disabled parking notification painted on the floor. Terri says, “Okay, Mom. I believe you!”

Dave Thomas

10/10/2024

Here’s An Idea

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The pro-life people are opposed to abortion even in the event of rape or incest. Basking in their arrogance and ignorance, they willfully sentence a young victim (a mother not by her choice) to a life she would never have chosen. We need to make this situation more equitable. We must pass what I will call the Fiscal Adoption Act. This would decree that a member of the Pro-life belief would financially adopt the victim and her baby for life. This obligation is only financial, not custodial, so would involve setting up trust accounts for both mother and child. I feel that these Pro-Life people should feel some financial pain for what they are doing to the victims. It’s kind of like karma in that you get what you deserve. Hey, fair is fair.

Dave Thomas

10/3/24