Dateline July 4th 1996

I make a killer peach cobbler if I say so myself but I don’t have to, it stands up for itself.

Let’s go back, way back when.

On Thursday July the 4th, our family was getting together to enjoy a fun time in a campground where they all had RV’s parked. My sister Carol asked me to make and bring a peach cobbler to the outing and I agreed.

I was living in a small town, Avilla Indiana in 96′ after returning from a job on a fishing vessel in Dutch Harbor Alaska. I had a construction job and a great boss. He owned a small vinyl siding company and we were working around town on a job the week of July 4th.

After work we would go to the American Legion and slap back some beers along with the occasional shot of the mighty Jim Beam. this was pretty much a daily routine.

On July 2nd, a Tuesday, my boss paid me and gave me the rest of the week off with pay as he was headed out of town. Well this is the story of that week.

After he split the legion that day I proceeded to get a heavy buzz on as I didn’t have to work until Monday and this was Tuesday, PARTY TIME!

After catching a good buzz at the legion I decided to hit the Tap, a bar in downtown Avilla. It was about a block from home so I drove home and waked over to the bar to see what was happening.

The place was kind of dead, maybe nine or ten people drinking and bullshitting. I shot a couple games of pool and then called some old brothers from the club I used to ride in.

Soon enough they started showing up and then some friends I hung around with showed up and we were having a get down, party down kind of night.

There was some crank handed out in the parking lot which if you’ve ever experienced it know it is a mind bending speed your ass off drug. Get drunk? hell yes but the effects of crank will let you keep going without passing out.

It turned into a pretty good sized crowd and the bartender was happy to be busy and receiving good tips all night. The juke was jamming and we had a blast.

After the bar closed, a friend who was there invited us across the street to the pizza shop he owned. We all bought carry-out and proceeded across the street to continue partying. We made pizzas and partied until the sun came up. A few of us went on partying through out the day using the crank to keep flying and so that day had become night again.

Around 11 p.m. on Wednesday I was stumbling home and a neighbor asked if he could borrow some cd’s from me, I said hell yeah and invited him and his friend [I didn’t know] over to my house. Jeff was over looking through my cd’s, I was standing in front of my t.v. and this other guy I had never seen was standing by my front door.

I glanced over and seen this guy pick up my loaded .38 special and point it my way. I took my .357 out of the holster and as I was bringing it up to shoot him I bumped the hair trigger and shot my right knee point blank. He split lickety quick but did stop at a pay phone and dialed 911 Wanna talk about getting sober quick? That will do it, believe me.

The ambulance showed up in about five minutes but couldn’t come in or let me go outside because it was a shooting crime scene and they needed a cop to be there. The cops…There sorry asses were a half hour away in another town eating doughnuts, no shit that’s the truth. I was smart enough to get myself into the kitchen before I laid down and had Jeff get a bag of ice out of the freezer and put it on the entry wound. That slowed the bleeding down.

When I got to the hospital, another 45 minute ride to Fort Wayne, a big city, I was lying in the ER and raising hell with everyone because they wanted to cut my right leg off at the knee. I had cop killers in my pistol and it shredded the meat clear down my leg and I had lighting bolt breaks vertical in the bones.

A doctor was walking by and came over to see what was going on. The other doctor told him and he grabbed me by the shoulder and told me he would save my leg but I would never be able to use it again. I’m like cool.

This happened at midnight on July 4th so needless to say, no cobbler for Carol. I spent the next year on my back and with no insurance therapy was done at home. I regained 84% of use in my leg. I can still move around pretty damn good and bet your ass although I don’t drink or do drugs I can still cut a rug pretty damn well.

Oh yeah, the doctor that saved my leg had a prosthetic leg himself.

Thanx for reading this long post and remember this,

NO COBBLER FOR CAROL ! Love ya sis.

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