The summer of 72 Jim Getty, Richard Fisher and I worked construction in Washington and Idaho. We were all single and we traveled around framing houses. We had a day off in Yakima so we went to an auction. I came away with a wall clock I didn't mean to buy. I got a good buy on it. It hangs upstairs in the washroom. It still doesn't work. This last summer I bought an old house in Mountain Home, on American Legion, by accident. The house was built in 1920 for a Doctor Morton. This is a large, two story house across from Carl Miller Park. I go into town and work on this house every day. I have had people tell me that this is the ugliest house in Mountain Home. I like to think rather that this house has experienced delayed maintenance. I am trying hard to breath life into this interesting old house. I was working on the south side porch this last week, pretty focused on my work. I was startled to find a woman standing beside her bicycle not 10 feet from me. The bicycle was an old Huffy reproduction, girls bike, baby blue and white with balloon tires. I liked the bike right off the bat. I then turned my attention to the woman. She was full grown, nice looking and well formed. She had grey hair pulled back and a million dollar smile. OK, I was taken. There is a large, old apple tree located at this corner of the house. The tree grows over the eves where I was working and the branches spread over where she stood with her bicycle. She told me about all the fruit trees in Mountain Home where you could harvest all the plump, free fruit you wanted. Her son walked up about this time and told me to watch out for her. He laughed when he said that she would take anything that is not nailed down. He said she had this bike for just a few days. She got flustered and told me the bicycle was abandoned in an
alley near her home. I stood there grinning at both of them. I am sure the bicycle mystery will work itself out. Life is good.