I bought some beautiful 16 inch wide cypress boards at a sawmill a while back and made a deal with a good carpenter to use them to build me a coffin. I took them yesterday to have em planed. While Pablo was loading the boards he asked me if I am planning on dying anytime soon. I told him no, but that I want to go ahead and build the thing because I don’t know how healthy the carpenter is.
I had no intentions last week of hiring any new help, but I did. It was raining and we were sanding shelving. I looked over and saw a young man that I’d never seen before, who was sanding along with my hands. An hour later, he still was, so I asked who he was. They told me that he was a teenager and the nephew of one of my hatmakers and that he normally worked with a bricklayer who was rained out. After he worked the second hour, I said, put him on the payroll. He worked one more day before the sun came out and he went back to the bricklayer. I heard through the grapevine that he wanted to work for me, so the next time I saw him, I took him with me to lunch to see what I could find out about him. I was amazed. This young man could have been the result of my raising. He has a work ethic as good as anybody I have. He doesn’t use drugs, smoke, drink, have tattoos or earrings. ( I know that’s old fashioned thinking but I’m old fashioned.) He opened the doors for me and answered with yes sirs and no sirs. He speaks perfect English and perfect Spanish. Today he is helping the ladies in the warehouse to ship out a big order. Tomorrow, he will dig a drainage ditch on the ranch. That’s all good with him and even better than that with me. Hell, I’d of hired him if I didn’t have anything for him to do.
I write like a talk. Sometimes you’ll see a few old fashioned cuss words, but that’s exactly what they are, old fashioned. New age profanity is, to me, crude, vulgar, obscene, and it shows a pitiful lack of vocabulary. It seems to be used by women as much as by men. I’m sorry about that. I think its a shame and is a sign of moral decline.