I want to start by saying I don't know the first thing about writing a book. I do know enough to look in the front of several in my library for a pattern of some kind and this is what I found. First, I need a PROFOUND STATEMENT for page one so here goes. Dizzy Dean said, "If you can do it, it ain't bragging." I wouldn't have known that except I heard Nolan Ryan, another baseball player quote him in a television commercial. Since this will be written in first person singular, there will appear to be a lot of bragging. Next, a table of CONTENTS. That will come as different episodes are written and posted to the web site. I also need a section titled ACKNOWLEDGMENTS and here I have something to say. I want to thank my friend Max Booker who came up with my nickname, "Froggy." We have been best friends since 1958. Next, Edwin L. "Skip" Skipworth who has encouraged me from the first to write a book. I have only known "Skip" and his bride Wilsie for a little over a year, but it seems like a decade or longer. We worked for the same company at different times.

Me

The episodes are actually letters relating some of my hare brained escapades. Hare brained or not, they are true. I may be a little off on some of the dates but close enough for government work.

I was born August 7, 1933, in Haskell County, Texas. My dad was a cowboy for the Swensons, ranch people who owned land in several counties. First picture of me that I have is me in his lap at about eleven months sitting on the water wagon. Just about everyone hauled water back then. The railroad furnished it. This was back in the steam engine days when the trains still took on water from a tower. Ranchers and farmers would drive their wagons up under the spout for a load of life giving fluid. I don't know if they paid for it or not. Can't make much difference now.

My dad wanted to be a truck driver from the first time he saw one. He finally started driving full time soon after the war broke out and was driving one the day he died December 7, 1986. We moved many times before I finally settled in Weatherford, Texas at age fifteen.

I want to call this book, ME AGAIN. If anyone objects, please let me know. The phrase is one a customer used every time he called me about the automobile I had sold him. I hope you enjoy the stories and photos.

Contents

Preface 1 2  Hog Killing and Other Occupations 3  The Photo 4  Take the Tour 5  My Name is Froggy 6  Cairo 1984 7  Pet Peeves 8  When In Rome 9  Hail Columbia 10  On the Trail 11  Orville and Wilbur 12  Move Over Buddha, You Have My Seat 13  Move Over Buddha Continued 14  Birds 15  Gardening 16  Guitar Pickin 17  Marriage, Truth or Consequences 18  Weed Eaters 19  Cross the Brazos at Waco 20  The Lonestar Tavern 21  Flying Coffins in Cairo 22  From Butte to Paradise 23  My Favorite People 24  Tight Lines, Sharp Hooks 25  Rescue at Sea 26  Of Course I Can Fly 27  Working Without a Net 28  How Do You Want Your Eggs? 29  Showdown at Gambler's Gulch 30  Get the Net! 31  If I Could Would You? 32  That Reminds Me 33  Coffee, Tea or ...

34  Very Important Truffles Alert 35  Airline Meals 36  On the Way to Work 37  Do's and Don'ts 38  A Day at An Shas 39  Geronimo 40  Kids Will Be Kids...Or Something 41  Moby Dick 42  Life at the Sheraton 43  Life is a Gamble 44  "Now I lay me down..." 45  Treasure or Trash 46  It Pays to Complain 47  Scoutmasters 48  The Judge 49  Not Ever Again 50  Repo Man 51  Keep Those Caissons Rolling 52  The Nigerian Cardinal 53  Intentional Spins Prohibited 54  GI Joe 55  Lead Me Not Into Temptation; I Can Find It By Myself 56  Debbie Reynolds and the Blue Tail Fly 57  Bits and Pieces 58  Wonder What the Poor Folks are Doing 59  TWA and My 1938 Chevy 60  Early Point and Shoot 61  Cairo Memories 62  Just the News 63  Deer Season 64  Camping Out in Germany 65  Characters 66  And now, for the rest of the story 67  Adios Amigos