Clint Pruett:  

I was born February 24th 1947 in the town of Gooding in the state of Idaho in the United States. I am the only child of my mother who lives in Jerome Idaho. I only met my father on three occasions so we were never close. My mother was legally married and divorced 24 times before I was 18 years old. She was a drunk and she liked men a lot. I’m glad to say she has changed her ways these days. I was raised by my grandparents. My Grandfather was a carpenter on the Union Pacific Rail Road. He was foreman on the bridge and builders gang. He was a father to me more than a grandfather. He taught me to fish, to hunt, to repair engines and build a house. He was influential in what I have made of my life. My grandma taught me to cook and to make quilts. She taught me to read before I started school. She was like a mom. We lived for several years in what is known as an outfit car. (see story...bird droppings and power poles). As a result we traveled a lot and lived on the rails. My life was always interesting. Around age 10 I hired out to unload coal from box cars. I developed a good work ethic and a liking for the respect having my own income gave me. I progressed from job to job Until I had an experience that really opened my eyes. (see story....sex and ghosts) I joined the army in 1967 and volunteered to serve in Vietnam. While there, I was shot. That, and the complications of exposure to Agent Orange, along with PTSD led to my present condition. I am classified as 100% service connected disabled by VA and as unemployable by social security administration. I have not tried to work since the year 2008. Up to that point I was an electronic technician and a part time truck driver. I have worked in just about every industry you can think of. I was called a Jack Of All Trades. But master of none in that I had just as much proficiency in everything I did. From laborrer to Xray Tech. I worked many years as an electronic technician. I was married for 37 years and have 5 grown children, 4 of whom I live with in Mesa Az . Due to the fact that I cannot walk more than about two hundred feet at a time I get very little exorcise. As a result I’m quite fat. I like to spend time in the wilderness away from the hustle of civilization. I enjoy nature and the feeling of being close to our creator when I get the opportunity to be in that setting. True stories of my younger days The Rock and the Haystack: (married in self defense) 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 home28 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. A Near Death Experience Not too long after the burial in the haystack another fun incident took place on the same farm. On this farm there was an artesian well. The water from this well came out of the ground at about 125 degrees .It smelled like rotten eggs (sulfur) and tasted terrible. The well had a 4 inch fire hose attached to it and the gate valve wheel was about three feet in diameter. When just barely turned on it produced well over 150 gallons per minute. Also on the farm was a large collection of old unused farm implements. One of these was an old combine. I do not know if you are familiar with a combine or not but it has three levels of steel chainlike belts that move the grain through the machine. On these chains there are fingers of steel which point up from the chain belt. So on the lower level the fingers are all pointing up and the fingers on the middle chain are pointing down. The space between the chains is about a foot and a half. One fine day we children were playing hide and seek. Janice was it. I decided I would hide in the space between the chains. I did not realize my sweet wife of the future was peeking and saw me hide. She dragged the hose from the well over to the combine and put it in a hole in the top of the machine. She then went back to the gate valve and tried to turn it on. She could not move it so she got a long pipe and using it as a lever she turned it full on thinking it would be funny to get me wet. Well not only did she get me wet I got hung up between the teeth on the chains and could not get out. The machine was filling very rapidly and I knew I was in deep do do. I began to holler help. She began to laugh. I began to gurgle and gag as the water covered me completely. I was just on the edge of loosing consciousness when her brother managed to open a door on the bottom of the machine. The water rushed out and took me with it. That is as close to drowning as I ever want to get. Makes you wonder why I ever married her don’t it. I think she had me under total control. Even then! The Great Train Robbery: I played as a child on the railroad tracks. Not the most usual play area I know but when you live on a train I guess the local track is like anyone else’s front yard. I lived in what was called an outfit car. My grandfather was a carpenter on the bridge and builders gang at the time. On the occasion of the incident described here we were parked in our home town of Glenn’s Ferry Idaho. Most of my friends were in this small town at that point in my life. The two Irving brothers and a kid named Dick Isenheart were my best friends then. I was 10 going on 11 years old at the time. Being bored and having little to do we were messing around by the creek under the railroad bridge when a freight train was put on the siding near where we were playing. We noticed a group refrigerated cars (rare at that time and not truly refrigerated just packed with ice) with the word Hershey’s CHOCOLATE on them. The doors on the cars were sealed of Crosse but living on a train I was familiar with the fact that the access doors on top of them were left open to allow ice to be put into the car. What 11 year old have you ever seen who does not recognize the word “Hershey” a rolling gold mine was the thought we all had. After much persuasion on the part of the Irving’s Dick and I decided to help them acquire some candy bars that they were to sel...Expand for more