RM-Jones

In my last post, Hitchhiking About 11000 Miles In 11 Months, you will remember that I had just returned home to Yale, Washington after hitchhiking to Sidney, Nebraska. We lived in a trailer since we followed construction jobs and my father was working on the Swift Creek Dam just East of Cougar. When I got home, my father was far from happy with me but I still got a new pair of badly needed shoes.

I stayed around home, , for a few days but I had a taste of "Freedom" and liked it. I was kind of like a tumble weed, it didn’t take much wind to set me rolling. One morning I got up and left, again. It was pretty much the same routine as before. I drove to The Dalles, Oregon and dropped off my car. The reason I drove to The Dalles was because we were so far out in the hills it was very hard to get a ride and I had a place to safely leave my car at The Dalles. I had a little money in my pocket this time so didn’t have to hit Hap Sanderson up for any money. I just stopped in to say hello and ask if I could leave my car. Hap offered some money but I declined. As I was saying goodbye Hap said he would send a letter to my dad letting him know that I had been there. He couldn’t call on the telephone because we lived so far back in the hills there wasn’t a phone for about twenty five miles.

That trip was pretty much just wandering around the North West. It was so uneventful I don’t even remember much of it. I do know I stayed in Oregon for the most part but made sure to stay out of Madras . I was sure that very angry father would shoot me if I got anywhere near his daughter. He just didn’t seem to think wandering around the country riding our thumbs was what he had in mind for his daughter.

Continue reading Hitchhiking About 11000 Miles In 11 Months – Part 2

In my last post "Pay It Forward – A Real Story" I told about my first contact with the concept of Pay It Forward. In that post I said that I would post two more on the trip home to Oregon before I was shipped to Germany in 1959. This is the first part of that trip and not only covers that trip but the trips I made the summer I enlisted. I hope you enjoy it.

Please realize that although this story is true, the actual mileage may be a little off. There was no way for me to know exactly how far I traveled. After I got in the army I sat down a couple of times and tried to figure it out. The best estimate I could come up with was about 11,000 miles. That might be five hundred or even a thousand miles off. However, to the best of my calculations it was about 11,000 miles.

I was between my Junior and Senior years in high school the summer of 1958. We lived in a small town, if you can call a wide spot in the road a town, of Yale, Washington. I mean it was actually a wide spot in the road. At one time there was a town there but it was long gone. When I lived there Yale consisted of a trailer court, a cemetery, a church and a small general store. We actually considered ourselves as living in Cougar, Washington which was six miles east of us. It was a little wider spot in the road. We were actually about 25 miles to the nearest public telephone.

Continue reading Hitchhiking About 11000 Miles In 11 Months

Since this is my first post I want to post a series of three post about my first Real Adventure. It is TRUE and as accurate as I can make it these forty two years later. I hope you enjoy it.

One of my favorite movies is "Pay It Forward". If you haven’t seen it you really should find it and watch it a couple of times. The reason I say a couple of times is that the first time through you will enjoy it without giving it much thought. Then, if you are like me, you will ask yourself "How did the start track back to the end?" and you will watch it again. I found it on NetFlix but I’m sure you can find it anywhere they rent DVD’s.

Many of you will know what the "Pay It Forward" idea, or movement, is. For those of you that don’t let me take a few moments to explain. It is simply helping someone who needs help without any thought of payment. You help them because someone helped you in the past. When you help the person you simply ask them to pass it on to someone else in the future. By helping them you have paid your debt to the person that helped you. For additional information check out this site.

Many of you think that the "Pay It Forward" idea started with the movie. It didn’t. In fact I came into first contact with that idea while I was hitchhiking through the middle of Nebraska in February 1959. Let me tell you that the middle of Nebraska IS NOT the place to be hitchhiking in February.

Continue reading Pay It Forward – A Real Story

I lost a number of my post and I’m setting back up. It was my fault not my web host. I did something stupid. No, I’m not going to tell you .

I am restoring the post that are still valid. Post that are out dated will be left out.

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