While taking a break the other day from writing, I stood on the front dock of the paper.
Then I saw something that I have not seen in at least six years: a June bug. Now I hate to admit it, but I am terrified of them.

And it all goes back to when I was a young kid living in Newtonia. There was this one time when my Grandpa Garner took me to Neosho in his late 1950s or early 1960s light blue Ford truck.

Now here is where it gets hairy. I got into the truck –I was only 9 years old – and Pop’s hardhat from work was lying on the dash. Pop told me to move the hat and not knowing, this green June bug flew out right at my face. I freaked, thinking it was a bumblebee or even a wasp.  I remembered that I ducked, told Pop to get that darn bug away from me and even tried to shoo it out of the window. Eventually, it flew out. Thank goodness.

For the longest time after that, I never noticed the June bugs, until I was living in Joplin and had stepped outside in the backyard to find about a dozen of them bugs swarming around the outside light. They wanted to come into my house, but I would not let them.
Now that I am starting to see them more and more, hopefully they will not try to attack me.

o o o

Pop was a kind-hearted person. He would literally help out anyone that needed help. If it was with a car or with using the band saw in his shop, he was there. I remember one time that he was watching Greg and I while Mom and Nanny were getting groceries.
Pop taught us how to whittle. He also gave us two wooden legs from rejected parts of a wooden table. They were shaped into the form of “guns” and Greg and I would play Cowboys and Indians in his yard.

Pop would also tell us jokes, and old sayings, like “You can’t win for losing” and “Don’t dilly-dally.” To this day, I have to stop and think on what the first one really means.

When I would ride my bike down the streets of Newtonia, I would see him sitting outside in one of his swings in the front yard, his shirt buttoned down three buttons from the top because he had worked outside and was trying to cool off. I would always go up to him and just talk either about the weather, or how school was going or if I needed help checking the oil in my car or to remember to put gas in my car and don’t let it get past a half a tank. (Oh, I wished that I had listened to that one, since I have ran out of gas three times in the last year).

Anyway, Pop would talk to anyone that stopped by, actually about the same subjects.
And he loved walking his dogs.

I miss Pop. He passed away on May 28, 2001. He was a very wise man, cared for everyone and would always help. He and Nanny were married for 59 years. I still think about him a lot. I always looked up to him and hope that he knew that I did. I still do.