FROM MY BACKYARD

By Byron Higgin, Mascot Publisher

The message on my phone machine didn’t sound good. So I returned it as soon as I could.
A Roy DeMoss from Ames, IA was on the other end of line and his months of searching had finally paid off.
He’d been looking for a Byron J. Higgin and a google search finally told him I was in Minneota.
But the news he brought was sad. “My brother, your friend Gary “Doc” DeMoss passed away last March,” said brother Roy.
We all lose friends and the older we get, the more we lose them.
But this was different.
Gary, or “Doc” as we called him, was not only my medic, but my friend in Vietnam.
We suffered and cried through the bad times together. We laughed and supported each other through the good times.
Once on our island outpost we were suddenly awakened by  the noise of choppers. Big gun boats began to arrive and a lot of noise made the tiny island feel as though it was about to explode.
“Wounded, we’ve got wounded,” someone yelled. Doc DeMoss was up and running at the sound of those words and I was running right after him. We were trained to help if we could.
Doc was a medic and it was his job.
I watched him as he repaired our boys the best he could, then put them on a helicopter for an evacuation hospital.
He’d done all he could and he held his head up as he walked away.
That night, in the privacy of our tent, Gary “Doc” DeMoss cried.
“I couldn’t do enough for them,” he sobbed, upon hearing some of them had died.
He took it personal. I held him and I cried with him.
Now, Doc is gone.
There was no way he could hold off the cancer that destroyed his bones, and he died.
I cried again. This time because I’d lost a friend.
And also, because I can still see him crying in the shadow of the night.


MINNEOTA HAPPENINGS:
•The Minneota American Legion will hold a Flag Burning Ceremony behind the American Legion building on Saturday, November 14.
The Legion and VFW traditionally burn tattered and worn American Flags.
•A “Golden Opportunity,”  to see and hear about the good old days will come this week when Kay Drown talks about the times of, “The Hat Ladies,” at the Big Store in Minneota on Thursday, October 29. Drown will take and show the hat collection and other items from 2 -3 p.m.
•The Minneota Lions club is still part of the Lions Club fight against diabetes and they recently donated $100 to the cause.
•Power Rangers, princesses and some pretty scary monsters are about to come your way.
Across the nation there will be 36 million children ages five to 13 trick or treating on Halloween.
The Allstate Insurance Health World and National Safety Council says the best ways to insure that are:
•Supervise kids under 12.
•Travel only in familiar areas.
•Stop only at places well lit.
•Drivers should watch for kids darting out between cars.
•Dress children in fire-retardant costumes.
•Keep costumes hemed.
•Use facial makeup instead of masks so the child’s view isn’t obstructed.

LAUGH A LITTLE:  You've been computer programming too long:
•When asked about a bus schedule, you wonder if it is 16 or 32 bits.
•When you’re reading a book and look for the space bar to get to the next page.
•When you get in the elevator and double-press the button for the floor you want.
•When not only do you check your email more often than your paper mail, but you remember your {network address} faster than your postal one.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: As My Ole Pappy used to say, “Retirement ... It’s a time when you work harder than you did when you were working, because everyone thinks you don’t have anything to do and they ask you to do everything for them.”
Ole Pappy retired and was never so busy. I guess he had it figured out.