Terry's Adventures

        The sun was shinning brightly outside, but the temperature stayed in the mid-fifties. It was a cool day. Only about a week away from the official first day of Autumn. Trees are already starting to turn their Autumn colors. Farmers have already started to cut their corn crops in some places.
         Out by mile marker 18 the fields are bare. Farmers cut the corn there over a week ago, most likely for feed to help the farmers in the drought areas in the south part of the state.
         Minnesota is a beautiful state, however not as hilly as its neighbor, Wisconsin, known as "God's country" as some folks would say. Two beautiful states separated by the St. Croix River.
         Mile marker 18 was actually closer to the Wisconsin border then it was to the town Hinckley. Oddly, the miles didn't start counting from the border, but started counting from the cities borders toward the state's border, as if all roads led to Hinckley. .
         A blue station wagon pulls into the driveway just shy of the 18 mile marker. A young woman steps out of the driver side and walks around and gets a dark blue bag out of the back seat. Her long sandy brown hair is pulled back into a neat ponytail.
         She looks around briefly as she steps onto the porch. New cement freshly poured as base to posts that held up an open porch area. Off to her right, plastic protecting a freshly dug hole for an egress window left unfinished flapped in the breeze. Her badge swings on her chain as she leans to push the door bell.
         An older red haired woman, about twice her age, greets her with a smile as she opens the door for her to come in.
         "Hi, you must be Hannah." the older woman says calmly.  "I am Yvonne, their daughter. Please come in. He's in the living room."
         She turned to lead the way and an even older grayed haired woman met them in the kitchen.
         "Hi. I am Judy, his wife." She beamed with pride.
         "I am Hannah, please to meet you" she replied as she shook her hand. Together, the three of them went into the living room where a gray haired man sat on the couch. She leaned over and shook the man's hand. "You must be Terry. I am Hannah."
         "Nice to meet you" Terry said in a week and tired voice.
         Hannah reached in and took out her camera and tiny 9" camera stand. Yvonne and Judy looked at each other in silent and Judy left the room to come back with her 4' camera stand.
         "Here, this may work better." Judy said as she handed Hannah the stand. Hannah chuckled and thanked her.
         "Yea, this is all they had at the store." She said as she laughed in embarrassment. "Where would you like to sit?" she asked Terry. He pointed to a maroon lounge chair across the room. To its right was a fire place. Above the mantle hung a canoe paddle with a YF logo burned on its blade. Judy helped Terry get up out of his seat while Yvonne went into the kitchen to grab a couple chairs. Hanna fumbled with her camera as she figured things out. It was as if this was her first time doing this or first time with a new camera. Yvonne leaned over and helped her with some suggestions on what she would like with a view. In preparation to Hannah's coming, Yvonne had also typed out a chronological list of questions she would like to have asked about her father's life. Upon arrival, Hannah was shown the list and suggested Yvonne to ask the questions to her father. Yvonne agreed as long as the focus was on her father and not on her. Hannah was finally satisfied with the settings of her camera. She recorded Terry talking to make sure the sound would be good and then gave the ok to start. "Terry, why don't we start with you giving an introduction about your self."
         Terry, nodded and then began speaking with as much of an enthusiastic voice he could muster. "My name is Terry Anders, and when people ask me how I am doing I always answer 'Super Duper, Roshy-kosh, Rickity-Tic... just like down town' and maybe later you too can be." he said with a tired smile....