THREE WISE MEN

Throw a penny into the Indian Ocean

You jump right in

Three Wise men in the Indian Ocean

And you jump right in

Sometimes it doesn't take throwin it all away

To find out what you’ve got

Sometimes it doesn't take a good friend to say

Its more than time that you lost

Alejandro Escovedo

You may remember Bruce from "Gullywampus", "Ghosts in the Fire" and the continuation 'Man Overboard". There is more to Bruce than that.

When I lived in Detroit, Bruce came to see us. Dad met him at the Airport. It was in January of, let's say, 1967. On the way home Dad and Bruce stopped for Bruce to see something not too many Texans ever see…. The three foot thick sheet of Ice that covers even the Great Lakes during Winter in that part of the country. I know that it gets that thick for two reasons;(1) I have seen the chunks of Ice the icebreaker Ships throw up to allow the Ore boats passage and (2) I have been huddled over a small hole in the Ice trying to catch a poor frozen and starving little fish. Let me assure you it is cold out there, with not so much as a Barb-Wire fence to break the wind.

Back to Dad and Bruce- apparently they stopped at a local pier in the dead of night and in the middle of winter to inspect the Ice. Clambering down the ladder to the ice at the Pier must have been a trick, but not nearly the trick it would be getting back up.

Especially after Bruce and his 300 pound frame had slipped and fallen on the Ice resulting in a shattered wrist and forearm. No one besides Bruce and my Dad will ever know how much panic there was or how much danger they must have both been in as Dad tried to help Bruce get back up the 10 rungs of ladder that had to be climbed.

They made it, and spent most of that night in a Detroit Emergency Room.

As I write this, Bruce finds himself in another great battle. His daughter Jan has described him as a "jolly soul that drives like a Bat out of hell and eats Like a farm -hand, and still loves a good party."that sounds like the Bruce I remember.

But today, Bruce is in ICU and the description, today, is that he is "Responding, but delirious".

I don't like the sound of that.

So for those of you that pray, pray for Bruce. For those of you like myself that don't, then,like myself, pray a little anyway.

I have so much hoped to someday to see Bruce again.

When he comes out of this, perhaps I should give a call… it’s the next best thing.

While we are at it lets ...also think about Jeff's (The XMRSB'HOLES husband) father who has suffered a bad stroke the last several days. I don't intend to turn this into a prayer group, but I want all to know whats up out here. I should also mention that the 6 degrees of separation you hear about is more like three degrees in my case.... not only is it a fact that in my Senior high School group picture, jeff and I stand together but remarkably.... his father and mine worked together years before jeff and I were friends....this we did not even know until recently.

In fact, given that Dad and Bruce worked together at the same time, Bruce most likely knows Jeffs' father; Austin Yeats! Bruce, do you remeber Austin from those Hyde-pak Days when, as Dad liked to say, ya'll were "G-Men"?