<p><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">I've had this story in my mind for 40 years and tried to find some one to write it for me since my handwriting is illegible. Then I decided to learn to type but I'm not a good student and that didn't work out, so one day I decided to punch it out, hunt and peck style on the computer, which worked better because I think faster than I type; therefore, I didn't have to go back and change too many ideas. What I learned was, "writing" is fun and it amazed me how I would introduce a character in one place and they would show up later as an integral part of the story. If you have a desire to write just sit at your word processor and start. The story will flow out by itself. At least that's the way it happened to me. My wife asked me who wrote the book because the grammar and descriptions didn't sound like they came from me. The story is set in The Dalles Oregon. I had an uncle who lived there. His ranch was west of town with an enormous pine tree in the front yard. In the early 40s my dad and I (I was 14 at the time) spanned the tree. As I recall it took us 4 or 5 times to go around that tree. We started at a chalk mark stretched finger tip to finger tip until we reached the original chalk mark.</span> </p>