THERE WERE TWO OF US.....JUST KIDS....

                       Levi

....standing out there in that nice
       but not fancy backyard
on a little sidewalk that ran
    out to the alley...and
if you looked acrost it
    about forty yards
there was an Allis-Chalmers
     or some such
farm store with tractors galore
    a'settin' around all over
their fenced yard
    with lots of pre-owned old
ones....that some teen-age kids
    had sat on for endless
hours, during endless summers
     and swatted gnats... plowing
all day long in ninety-five degree heat---

Those orange tractors, combines,
     and One-Way plows out
there...didn't bother these kids none
     for they had practically been
raised ...driving these things
     and wheat trucks to boot...

The boys were standing there in that
     quaint little Clovis backyard
that day, sort of "philosophizing,"
    for one of them had just passed
another milestone on this Earth...

There was a little sidewalk, as
    I said, and alongside it
was an old rock "cook-out"
    barbecue thing, with a rusted
grill right on the top---it had maybe
   cooked dozens of hamburgers
during the twenties and thirties
    before cooking-out was
 cool...now in its bottom were
    old ashes,  leaves from a dozen
autumns, and Curry County dirt,
    blown in...

These were pretty good boys,
     I suppose...as boys went in the
late forties in that grand hometown...
    They didn't cuss or drink, and
who had ever heard of "pot...?"

They sang bass in the church choir
     every Sunday morning and night
and had a nice little mixed quartet
    that sang sometimes...
with Fawnette and June in it...

Now from somewhere on this
    important and auspicious occasion
which they were sort of celebrating,
    they had acquired a couple
of cigars  (for shame, I know)) and
these were not six-cent John Ruskins
    or King Edwards...

These were the Real Deal...
     They were ROI TANS---nothing
but the best...

As the talking...and some laughing...
   and the reminiscing wound down...
the older boy, Levi said to Mil, his
    friend:

   "Well today, I am seventeen...and
       I don't know where the years
         have gone, but Pard, we are
          getting older...and it looks
           like one day we'll be old
             guys, if we live long
                enough, and who
                  knows what the
                    years will bring..."

With that, the boys grounded-out their
    ROI TANS in that little fireplace's
dirt----and tackled life once  again.

I have wondered, if an archaeologist
      excavated that little rock cooker,
today---(if it is still there)---if there
    would still be ROI TAN evidence.
---------------
.....long time passing...but Happy
Birthday Levi, from us all...with many
    grand and fond memories.
***************
BY. MIL
13 January 2018
0809 hours