From Whence We Lived

 

Beyond the frivolous gloom and unknown

foredoom, man’s significance is but an outrider

of illusory, his immanent glossary of obsequious 

myths keep him mortgaged to fear, he can't fathom 

the surrendering of death-the last residuum, this

self-reproaching torment embroils his curiosity, he 

scandalizes, plots, and schemes redemption then 

creates an angle to control everyone, this rector of

cowering adherence brings the wretched, wicked, and

weak to absolution, the fawning execution of Dominion, 

all convoluted in cloaking cleverness, to spirit phenomenons

to servitors who nurse themselves to mockery, this 

dynamism has overshadowed centuries, procurement 

of rituals and yearly ceremonial homages to blanked 

verse of nothingness, the codex of perplexed slavery:

kneel, pray, and more importantly, gifted alms, adhering 

to some mortifying cult, to appease an acrimonious goat

won't lift your hollowed rack of forgotten bones from an 

ember pile of ash, the only purpose to your misery is to 

love and appreciate today and your hope should be with 

dying in glorious vain. 

-  John Hardesty 

June 29, 2021 

The Hondo(page-9)

 

       The gang stumbled in around 3 or 4 A.M. and placed the frogs in a burlap sack and watered it down so the frogs could live until morning when their hind legs would be guillotined and fried up for breakfast with eggs, and it was damn good, what a treat that truly was indeed. 

       Hondo and Tim met up with Jimmy and Donnie Cross for whom both would be enduring lifetime friends; their dad played poker with Jimmy Cross in the poker room behind the nightclub called the Blue Knob, the nightclub was nestled in the heartland of the backbone from where Abraham Lincoln himself was reared and born just 15 miles or so from Hodgenville, the mornings off those knobs would be a bluish haze until the sun would evaporate the condensation that lingered there in each holler and clustered and protruding hill, something very majestic to behold and yet so evanescent. But, their dad hooked the brothers up with cleaning the nightclub and the poker room which was great money back then, they mopped and sanitized the nightclub on Saturday and Sunday mornings, and on Fridays would clean the poker room. 

     The parking lot was filled with scattered cans(which they saved which gave them extra cash), bottles, and debris but nothing boosted their morale than finding money scattered all over, mostly ones but sometimes tens and twenties and all in all they loved their new job. 

       Hondo eventually graduated from Nelson County school with great honors too, and he enrolled in college at the University of Kentucky in the fall, Tim never shown his weakness to Hondo yet, but he truly was devastated to lose his brother to college, this separation wrought great depression toward Tim. Hondo left for college and rarely came home, Tim missed his brother yet missed his counseling more than anything, Tim cleaned the Blue Knob by himself and sent Kevin money whenever he asked for it, he was entitled to that. Tim grew up quick after that. 

                                                                        9

The Hondo(page-8)

 

       In the youthful days of Hondo and Tim, their days were often filled with mischief and adventure, Fourth of July weekends would be spent with the Roberts, cousins, Chris, Steve, and Mike. Tim and Kevin loved them very much because winters were often spent there in the barn stripping Uncle Charles and Aunt Virginia’s ten acres of tobacco, so, when summer came around there on their 500-acre spread fun immediately followed, they often camped down on the river bed, set up tents, brought food, and their beloved cousins Steve and Chris bought them beer. Steve looked like Burt Reynolds the actor and Tim called him Burt often which I think he enjoyed and Chris always drove muscle cars and he always had time for Hondo and Tim, Mike was Tim’s age and they had a lot in common and Mike was always playing practical jokes at Tim’s expense but Tim never minded at all. Down on the river bottom they had a boat and set trotlines in the Rolling Fork River, they were usually drunk by midnight and had to check the trotlines every three hours, of course, they caught fish, but the Gars would strip or steal their bait like a river-rat-thief and when they snagged a Gar, they'd put the fish’s beak down in the banks of the river. It was a lot of fun back then and so many fond memories that'll last a lifetime between two families, the Roberts had Hondo and Tim’s respect forever. 

     Summers would often be spent with another family, the Thompson's, 6 girls, and one boy. The gals’ names were Theresa, Barbara, Mona, Becky, and two Mongoloid babies: Angel and Jeanie. And one son, Albert Martin, later on in life they would have another boy called Ray for whom is a great kid. Hondo and Tim were brought down on their Uncle Bert and Geneva’s farm to put up baled hay in the scorching summer, and plant their five acres of tobacco, of course, they didn't care, they loved the off times down there, going frog gigging was one of them. Aunt Geneva was a divine cook, her Southern cooking was exceptional and the smell alone in her kitchen would induce starvation. Some of the best meals Hondo and Tim ever ate were in her kitchen. Now, when night time came Uncle Bert and Aunt Geneva would go to bed because they both worked, but that's when Marty(Albert), Tim, and Hondo got their second wind and went to their basement and loaded up fresh batteries in the flashlights and examined the gig, then off to 6000 Square miles of the expedition where Marty knew the location of over twenty lakes and ponds that were strung out over several neighbors’ farms. 

                                                                         8

The Hondo(page-7)

 

       That night returning from Raywick in the truck was the most frightful night Tim and Hondo has ever encountered, they didn’t sleep well, but their dad went to Our Lady Of Peace again the following week, their beloved uncle Bobby(father’s brother) came down from Louisville to take their dad to dry out from alcoholism and to recover, he often suffered from “Lilliputian Hallucinations,” or he saw Little People and if you didn’t have an alcoholic father you wouldn’t even begin to know what Hell that is to witness-your father seeing little men terrorizing himself, for a child to witness was often taboo to ever rehash it to anyone. Oh, the enduring hardship the Hardesty family endured over the last twenty years of their dad’s sick life. 

     Kevin was a very responsible driver, he had free rein to take the ‘65 Chevy truck anywhere he wished, one day Hondo and Kevin went to run an errand for their mom, it was a usually quick drive to town, five-minute vista down their mile and a half lane and then on 31-E down a steep hill over the river bridge that had a two-lane passing lane coming back, they paid their mom’s bill and drove back home, but here comes a speeder and trouble, Kevin kept to the far lane and was solidly up the hill far passed the passing lane when Ann Wathen, a spiritless, rich, and drab cunt who brushed our truck, no damage except a scratch on the mirror, but Hondo pulled over to Sutherland Lane to get out of traffic, but that was an error, because long story short: money beat down the poor Hardesty boys, after that Tim and Hondo lost all respect for that phony family, this was a spoilt cunt who got everything handed to her, and who was speeding in excessive but the cops wrote her story and that was that, Kevin and Tim never spoke to her again. 

                                                                            7

                

The Hondo(page-6)

       Tim continued to scream for the dogs who scampered to the woods in the pitch dark of the night, it was after midnight, and Kevin finally told Tim to get in the truck, Tim obliged and jumped in. As the truck pulled out of the driveway, the truck ran off the the road toward an unkept fence row, Kevin grabbed the steering wheel and brought the truck back on the straight and narrow lane, Tim was so frightened he begged Kevin to turn around and wait until the morning. They were in too deep and far past of reconciliation of returning to that hell hole of neglection that their poor sick dad put them through over the summer, enough was enough, they simply couldn't handle another day much less an hour in these squalid and abusive conditions, onward they traveled. 

       They pulled out of the tapered lane onto the highway, they had to go through four cities to get back home, first back through Raywick, then left on Highway 49, thank God the traffic wasn't heavy, but their dad sped around 55 miles per hour, Tim was terrified, clinching his door handle and ready to bail if oncoming cars were coming and his dad crossed the center line so many times and veered off the road already twenty times, the road was a long and twisted, Tim couldn't begin to settle down but Hondo was cool as a cucumber, he never panicked, he was calm, cool, and collected under pressure, one car damn near hit us but Hondo grappled the steering wheel and slowing eased the truck back on track, finally, they made it to Saint Francis, a four-lane stop and forward they traveled, the steep hill beyond Saint Francis was where his dad was slowly nodding off, that's where the brave Hondo took over completely, he steered them the rest of the way back to Bardstown, but, his dad had to be awakened to change the gears past Holy Cross(the old Holy Cross on the highest hill in the county still stands as a remembrance of that night too), they finally rolled onto Balltown Road, another slender lane, and how Hondo managed that 90-degree turn was a miracle, now, one more highway and they're home, Highway 31-E was pretty much a straight stretch until their last left on Sutherland Lane, and when they hit Sutherland, Tim let out one sigh of relief, and thanked Hondo and told his friends at school for a month the following fall semester at St. Thomas school, what bravery his brother performed on that one miraculous odyssey home one night in late July. 

                                                                          6