Megaphone -- Page 7

We Might Have A Winner
by Cindy (Benedict) Odom

Ten million dollars
The envelope read,
In great big letters,
Letters bright red.

WOW a millionaire!
Can you imagine?

My mind goes off wandering
What's the first thing I'll do?
Take a trip, or maybe
Buy a car that is new.

I could even quit my job
Plant more flowers in the yard.
Gee, this millionaire thing
Doesn't seem all that hard.

Ten million dollars
It's more than I could dream.
And all I have to do
Is buy one magazine.

I’m Lonesome

by Virgil Ledford

I’m all alone and wonderin’ why?

And I’m so durn lonesome, I could cry,

Just asettin’ out here ‘neath the moon above,

I’m all alone with nobody to love.

Now I ain’t so happy, its plain to see,

Just asettin’ and wonderin’ does it have to be me,

Just agazin’ up at a star filled sky,

But still all alone and wonderin’ why.

"This is the second poem I share with you that my uncle Virgil Ledford wrote. I’m still looking for someone who might have known him."

Julie (Stout) Crim, '57

Yuma, AZ

When I was about 11 or 12 years old, Dad decided we would cut some firewood for the fireplace. He told me if we cut our own firewood, we would be warmed twice. I found this to be a tall tale, but oh so witty of Dad. It is one of those tales that has truth in its pocket. It is a tale because it is more than true.

Anybody who has ever cut their own firewood knows that it warms you not twice, but three, five, ten, even twenty times. The implication that you work up a sweat while obtaining your firewood, and then forget about the firewood until you kindle up a fire to warm and cheer a cold winter evening is whimsical. The woodcutter and his helper, puts themselves against a level of weight and inertia that is truly gigantic. The real work of getting this firewood is moving the stuff from one place to another. You will lift and shift every stick, again and again, and again. The warming you get from the combination of all this matter comes to somewhat of a frustration.

Therefore, when an advocate of antique ways tries to float the "warms you twice" canard by you, please keep in mind not all tales are untruthful. Here the explanation of cutting our own firewood isn't in what he is telling me, but in what he is not.