Richie Dinken Gets Educated (Musings of an Old Man)
Copyright© 2013 by Levi Charon
Chapter 7
Well, if you're wonderin' how it all turned out, I'll tell you. Beth n' me, we stayed together forever. When I was in twelfth grade, Mama died from a bad case of pneumonia. Well I was just a mess for a while after that. Beth insisted that I come and live at the farm full time until I went off to college. She helped me sell the house and property and open a savings account at the bank to use for my education.
Nobody said anything about me livin' at Beth's place 'cause they all knew I worked for her and that we were good friends. I took two weeks off from school but then I went back and graduated when I was supposed to.
All that spring 'til graduation I was thinkin' about what I really wanted to do with my life and finally come to a decision. I can tell you Beth wasn't any to happy about it, neither. I decided I wanted to farm. Well, she stomped around, rantin' n' ravin' for the longest time but I wasn't gonna change my mind. She finally accepted it.
That spring, we went to the John Deere dealer in Watonga and made a deal on some used farm machinery and I spent the weekends plowin' Beth's fields, puttin' in corn and beans. After I graduated, farmin' was my full time job.
Beth didn't pout about it or nothin'. Once she figured I wasn't gonna budge, she pitched in and made sure I done the job right. She learned about farmin' and marketing crops n' all that stuff.
That first year was a good one n' we actually made a profit. Beth n' I were both surprised by that. Then the folks at the next farm over finally went bust and we were able to buy their place for a good price. Beth had enough money in her savings to buy it outright so she didn't have to take out no mortgage. That more than doubled the size of the farm.
In '51, the Korean thing broke out n' I signed up for the army. I thought Beth was gonna skin me alive when I told her what I done. When I look back on it now, I can see it was just plain dumb but I guess I was still green enough that goin' to war was all about heroes and glory. When will we ever learn? Anyhow, three months after I got to Korea, I stepped on a mine and lost my left leg up to the knee. Of course, that ended my career as a hero.