The Rock and the Haystack:

Everyone has heard stories of childhood sweethearts. This is such a story. It is a true account of one of many incidents in my life.

I have known my wife for most of her life. She was four years old when I first met her. I was 5 years older than she at that time. Nine years old. I met her older brother when they moved to Glenn’s Ferry Idaho

Her brothers and I became very close friends and I soon began spending a lot of my time at their farm. The farm in question was literally on the banks of the snake river so we always had a lot to occupy our free time. We fished, swam, threw rocks at floating debris and everything one could think of to do in or near a river.

There were two sisters in the family. Janice the eldest and Rita the youngest. The girls were often involved in our activities and somehow Janice decided she was in love with me. She told me in no uncertain terms that she planned to marry me.

I was not so interested in love and such at that age so I just let life pass and never tried to convince her otherwise. About a year and a half passed and one day a neighbor girl was over playing with us. She decided she wanted to kiss me so she did.

Unbeknownst to my, Janice was watching this little exchange of personal exploration. She decided it was time to get even.

She was about 5 and three quarter years old at that point. She decided that it would be a good attention grabber if she hit me with something. With that in mind she hauled a thirty odd pound rock up the stairs on the two and a half story barn, into the hay loft. She then rolled this small boulder to the double doors looking out into the barnyard.

She called out CLINT! CLINT! I looked around and not seeing her, went back to swimming in the pool the cows drank from, with her brothers. Again she hollered I finally looked up and saw she was up in the loft. She motioned that she wanted me to come over where she was. I did and as I looked up at her she pushed the rock off the ledge.

The rock hit me in the left temple on the forehead. The next thing I knew I awoke. It was very dark and very scratchy and my head was very swollen. I had no clue why I found myself buried under the hay out in the middle of a forty acre field. I was quite groggy and very confused.

I finally made my way out from under the hay. My left eye was swollen shut and I had a very large bump right above it. I then recalled the rock coming at me. I thought that my eye had been knocked up onto my forehead under the skin. I had been unconscious for somewhere between four and six hours.

I made my way to the house. Their parents took me to my home and in turn I was taken to the hospital in mountain home, 28 miles west.

I had a concussion. I was very unsteady for a few days and had a headache that I would not wish upon my worst enemy. Later I learned that the reason I found myself buried in the haystack was because everyone thought I was dead so the brothers hid my body while they tried to figure out what to do. They were afraid that Janice would get put in jail.

I learned then to take very seriously everything my now wife said. I wish she would have just told me how angry she was instead of going to all the effort to demonstrate her anger. I still have a depression in my skull above my left eye. Every time I touch my brow I am reminded of my dear wife’s love.