Days with Dusty

Dustin or Dusty Pollard was my best childhood friend. Dusty had a strange ability to convince me to do many things that I wouldn’t have done otherwise. As I think back to my childhood one event pops into my mind.

I was about five years old when Dusty first started convincing me to do things. Dusty had a dog shed that stood about eight feet high and his brilliant idea was to jump off of it. When you’re five years old eight feet is a long way up. On top of the shed being really tall, there was an old rickety fence that we had to climb to get to the top of it which was another downer.

Being that I was five and somewhat shy, I didn’t bother to argue. In a short time, I scurried up the old fence. At the top of the shed, the ground looked more like twenty feet away instead of eight. I told Dusty that I didn’t like his plan and was going to climb back down but, when you hear “CHICKEN, BAWK BAWK” how can you say no? Dusty assured me that I would be ok and for some strange reason I believed him.

With a deep breath and a faithful step, I quickly dropped the 8 feet to the ground. I landed on my rear end and despite the several things that could have happened, I was unharmed.

Dusty soon followed and he too was alright. After that first jump there were many more and from that day on I blindly trusted Dusty through many events.

Other than my parents, Dusty was one of the first people that I trusted. He taught me to trust people that I don’t quite know yet. Even now, I follow that philosophy. If I meet a new person, I consider them trustworthy until they give me a reason to think otherwise. It doesn’t work all of the time but I still stick to it.