HOPES AND DREAMS

                         When my father moved us to Michigan ; before he went to Vietnam in 1968 I was only 13 . I just moved up from Cub Scouts to a regular Boy Scout troop ; ; it had been maybe six months after that we had went Michigan . This was a culture shock for me , after living in military housing near a large Navy base in Rhode Island . We where living in Middletown there . On Saturday afternoons we could go for a walk on base to look at all the large ships at dock . I remember once seeing a large air craft carrier come to dock . It was no small sight to see for a young boy .

                       Well back to my story . Here he moved us to this house out in the middle of nothing but cornfields .It was in this house that learnt about gardening and country living . Mom got me this dog whom became my best  ,her and I were inseparable . We would walk through the field after a fresh snow had just fallen and she would just run ahead ,just having a blast.Which would in turn rub of me .It was here that the idea came to my head that I wanted to build some thing . I had no idea what I wanted to build though .That was also the year I joined 4-H . It was in 4-H that I learnt about carpentry . There was this old one room school house down the road for the meetings . I will never forget that old wood stove that we had get fired up for heat . The first year there I did a woodworking project for this . It nothing but this simple toolbox . I remember our group leader had us working real hard on it . He would have us ever so carefully hand cut each piece , completely hand sand each piece before he would even let us think about putting it together . It seemed like it was taking us forever to build this thing . He turned this simple project in to a couple of months long . The day finally came when we drilled ,glued and finally drive the wood screws in . By hand of course . It turned out to be a fine toolbox which I treasured for years .
                    That's when I decided I wanted to build things when I grew up . I spent the rest of school days learning about the trades . Went in the Air Force to continue in the trade . For the many years afterward I had worked in trades in capacity or other . Concrete ; Boats ,; Signs ; Electrical;; Stone ; Metal Fabrication ; Under ground Utilities .Well I guess I can say I built something when I grew up .
                    Now that I work in food service I can look back and say I did follow my dream . Every day when I go to work I can still look at some of handy work . For I helped build the marble entry way at the hospital that I work at . I believe it gives me the feeling that I made a lasting personal investment in the place that I work . Some where on the back of one the marble slabs my name is chiseled in it . If your proud of what you have done ,you should be proud enough to put your name on it . So I guess I can say I fulfilled those dreams of that young boy those many years ago . Now its on to some new hopes and dreams ,what ever they may be .