It ain’t right, but it’s so. Have you every heard that term? Have you ever been a party to an event that “ain’t right” but it happened. Well I’ve been in more of them than I can count but here is one that still makes me want to say, WHAT?!!!

I don’t remember who us involved for sure, but I’d venture a guess that it was Ancinec, Young, Hord, and I. We were out hunting one night, spotlight’n rabbits, and taking them out just for the fun of it. Come to think of it that may be a “it ain’t right” kinda thing right there. I know there are many folks who would have a problem with rabbit hunt’n, but they probably didn’t grow up in the country. There hunt’n is just a right of passage if will. It’s something to do. A way to spend time in fellowship with your buds, and share a laugh or two.

Sometimes we made it a little more challenging than other times. Sometimes we would hunt with 22’s and give the lil beggars a jumping chance, while other times we used our 12 gages and…well let’s just say the deed was done. I do remember one time we had a real reason for hunt’n. Ancinec’s brother was in vet school at A&M, and we were collecting ear tics from our booty for some kind of project back at school. I remember another time we were collecting a few Jacks just so we could take them over to Wellman and run ‘em up  the school flag pole. I know, I know, it “ain’t right” but it seemed like the thing to do at the time. I sure hope the statute of limitations has run out.

Anyway, we were hunt’n one night over at the old home place. That’s what I called it anyway. It’s where my granddaddy Clark lived when I was young. We were on the north side of the pasture when we got stuck in a mud puddle. That right there may have been a sign of things to come, because if you know anything about West Texas you know we don’t have many mud puddles. Anyway, I had a flash of brilliance… I thought. I remembered that uncle Howard had a tractor parked at the butane tank over on the east side of the place, so we walked over, fired up the tractor, and headed back around the pasture to pull the pickup out of the mud. Well, it worked like a charm, and in no time we had the pickup out and the tractor back were it came from.

Being the responsible young man my parents raised me to be, the next morning I drove over to the farm, found uncle Howard, and told him that I had used his tractor the night before. He said that was ok, and I went on my way. A couple of hours later I looked up from the tractor I was driving for uncle Rayburn, and see uncle Howard headed my way. So when I came to the end of the rows I got off the tractor, and walked over to see what he needed. Well, seems as though he had had time to think things over, and saw an opportunity to solve a problem he had had for quite some time.   He told me that when I started the tractor the night before the starter had hung, and that I had burned it up, and the tractor now required a new starter. Hum, yes sir, I’m sorry, and I will gladly take care of the damage. It’s been a while you understand, but I think the damage was about a hundred and seventy-five bucks. A lot of money for a high school kid making a few dollars an hour working for his uncle Rayburn.

Now a few days later uncle Rayburn found out about me replacing the starter on uncle Howard’s tractor, and let’s just say…he got a little upset. The fact was that the starter on the tractor had been sticking for a longggg time, and should have been replaced months ago. In his estimation, I had been taken for a ride, and he didn’t like it one bit. You know I appreciate the way he felt, I am grateful that he confronted uncle Howard about it, but it didn’t change anything. I was still out the buck seventy-five, and the tractor had a new starter.

Was it right? Well I don’t know, maybe not. I do know that all of us boys had heard a sticking starter before, and if one of us had heard that distinct grinding noise that night we would have killed the tractor, or stopped the grinding. Most of the time all you had to do was tap on the side of a hung starter, and it would disengage thereby stopping the damage from being done. Did the starter really hang that night? You know it doesn’t matter. I was asked to take care of a situation, to be responsible, to do the right thing, and I did.

You know, sometimes things just happen, things just go wrong, or you find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s just life. Are things going to happen to you or me on occasion that “ain’t right, but it’s so?” Yup. It is at those times we can weight the situation, count the cost, and turn the other cheek for the good of the relationship. There is a time to make a stand, and a time to just let by gone’s be by gone’s. I hope I am mature enough to recognize the difference and to act accordingly.

Till next time,

Grump