This is my post for #freewrite Saturday prompt Cracking up by @mariannewest
My youngest brother's birthday just passed, 10-02, he was the funniest person ever, if you met him you loved him. He was always cracking up just a great personality. These are my memories of him.
His name was Henry Nathaniel Thompson but everyone called him Hoss. I remember the time he climbed under the bow of an old boat that wasps had built a nest, they stung him so many times that my Dad had to shave his head to treat all the stings. With his head shaved he got sun poisoning, I remember his head looking swollen with sores and Dad taking Dial soap and washing his head.
We were told not to swim under the shallow end of the dock because that is where they dumped metal things like bar stools and wire. Hoss was walking under the shallow end and a piece of wire got stuck in his foot, the wire was wrapped around something and I could not get it pulled out. The tide was rising and I had no choice but to get Dad, my Dad sent our oldest brother Tommy to help. Tommy could not get the wire pulled out from the bottom so he went to get wire cutters. By this time Hoss had to keep his mouth shut and with his head laid back only his nose was out of the water, and I was crying but telling him Tommy will get him out. Tommy got back with the cutters and cut the wire not far from his foot. I have always been very thankful that I did not wait any longer before telling Dad.
Hoss started first grade and the very first school day the teacher left the room and Hoss took a piece of chalk and wrote ass in big letter across the floor of his classroom.
He could take any song and make a funny song out of it. He was 6 foot 6 inches tall, he could hold his arm out straight and I could stand beside him and my head would be under his arm. I have many good memories about him but this is only 5 minutes to write it all, so I will skip ahead to that terrible day.
Hoss and his best friend worked for a lumber company and were unloading 3/4 inch plywood from a train. The band that holds the wood together broke and all the plywood fell on him, I thought I could write the details of this but it still hurts too much. I have seen way too many funerals in my 63 years but I have never been to one like Hosses funeral. Every seat was full, people lined the walls, people were standing in the reception area and out the door, he touched a lot of lives in his 26 short years.