The Sentinel News, what's happening today 200514

The Sentinel All the news that's fit to print and some that's not.
Uncle Billy This old memory came to me this morning. Uncle Billy bought a motor boat at one of those shows that were in town every January. It sat on a trailer for months from January to April and he got to the point he could no longer stand it, so he was determined to get out on the river with it. Somehow I was picked to go with him. I was just a kid, perhaps 13 years old so I was pliable and I suppose that's why he took me along. It was springtime on the river and there was a lot of water coming down the Mississippi and Missouri from up north. Billy had his boat and his captain's hat and off we went to the river with the boat in tow. We set the boat into the water about 2 miles above the Alton dam. The intention was to head north, but as we shoved off from shore, the motor would not start. The Mississippi current in the main part of the river was strong enough to pull water out of the backwater where we launched from and it drug us out into the main channel. Uncle Billy realized we were in trouble when the current took us within sight of the marker buoys that warned that beyond that point the currents were so strong that anything inside them would suck anything down and through the dam. That's when uncle Billy realized he forgot to buy a paddle when he bought the boat and his captain's hat. He looked at me and said paddle for all you're worth with your hands to get out of this current. we did use hands to break free from the current and into a backwater just above the dam. It was just April and the water was very cold, by the time we managed to get to a shoreline we were both icy cold. He then said,"use the rope to hold the boat while I walk back to get the car and trailer. we had already drifted close to 2 miles down river by then, so I sat on the river back shivering holding onto a wet, cold rope while uncle Billy walked back those 2 miles and got the car. We did get home okay and from then on uncle Billy had 2 paddles in the boat all of the time.	Life Life is a serious thing. It is precious and unpredictable. We never know when our last day will come. My older brother Paul, died at birth. My youngest brother Rob died in his fifties, while me and my brother Tom are still alive and kicking. There's an old saying, "only the good die young." I wonder what that says about me? If that old saying is true, what did I do to live this long? I always tried to do the right things, be an honest, trustworthy man. I had plenty of chances to die on the flight deck of the Kitty Hawk, had two times facing the wrong end of an army .45 caliber with two different angry man pointing them at me, one time with a holdup man in a video store pointing a .44 revolver at Joyce and me together, but here I am still unscathed. In the previous column uncle Billy darn near got me killed in that dam on the Mississippi. I have no answers. One thing I hear is, "life is a series of events that put you where you are today." I can believe that.	New Abode We are enjoying our new abode. In our small section of the building we have an army veteran, a navy veteran, a marine veteran and I believe an air force veteran. In our last place I was the only one. It's good to live and have vets as neighbors. They are more stable, reasonable and dependable than the general populace in my opinion. All of us did our time and look back on it as a good experience that made us what we are today. I also have a lot of friends who did their time in service of our country and that makes me happy. Living in a new place gives a person a new outlook on his/her life. That is always a good thing. Nothing is forever and things may change here, but we will change with whatever happens.