The Naked Sportsman and Other Stories (Four for Susie)

By Brian Nash

In these lively reminiscences, Brian Nash, blind from birth, recalls numerous youthful outdoor adventures in the Midwest. Various family members and friends play prominent roles. The eloquent foreword describes his determination to build a satisfying life in spite of his lifelong disability. The book is dedicated to his late sister, Janice Susan Nash Robertson (cover photo).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Nash
• Release date: Dec 26, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465936141

Brian Nash

Brian K. Nash was born in 1961 and grew up on a farm in Kansas. Blind from birth, he enjoyed the loving support of his parents and five siblings, who kept him active exploring the woods and riding horses. The many stories they told him and read to him fostered his love of fiction. He began composing his own fiction for children when his daughter Evelyn was small.He edited the school newspaper at the Kansas School for the Blind. Later on, he received computer training and became an adaptive technician, teaching other blind people to use a computer. He has extensive public speaking experience, especially to groups of school children, seeking to educate others regarding blindness and the capabilities of the blind.Henrietta of Valley View Farm is the first of Brian's several books for children that are being published by Smashwords. His lively, entertaining stories are set in a fictional place that has a lot in common with the locales he knew and loved as a child. The animals - chickens, cats, dogs, horses, birds, frogs, and many more - can talk to each other, and are among the most vivid of the many characters. They often have much to teach their human friends as they work together to overcome whatever challenges are thrown at them. Adventure abounds, and friendship always triumphs in the end.

Book preview

THE NAKED SPORTSMAN AND OTHER STORIES

(Four for Susie)

by

Brian K. Nash

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2011 by Brian K. Nash

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re–sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Visit Brian’s author page at Smashwords.

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Dedication

To my late sister, Janice Susan Nash Robertson. Your friendship, your enthusiasm for life, your incredible selfless generosity, your truly angelic spirit, and finally, your great love for all that is good in the world, are priceless gifts for which I thank you from the bottom of my heart and beyond. You will be missed till once again we run hand in hand through a grassy meadow on the other side of life. I love you, Susie. – B.K.

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Foreword

A Shotgun Memory

The Jim River Adventure

A Spin Around the Block

The Naked Sportsman

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Acknowledgements

It’s always tough to give credit where it’s due, as you often feel that you’ve left someone out. So, to be all–inclusive, I’d like to thank all who mentored, all who encouraged, and all who just plain had the right attitude.

Unlimited gratitude to my wife, Susan Starr Nash, who first edited my stories. I received training in word processing in 1980 and finally started to write in 1995 on an old IBM computer, using Windows 95. It took Sue a long time to wade through all my typos and grammatical errors just to figure out what I was saying. She would edit my work in front of the Amtrak station in Sedalia, Missouri as I prepared to leave for Kansas City, where I was working then.

Thanks to Sue’s daughter, Stephanie Bentley, for supporting my work.

I’d like to thank my beautiful daughter, Evelyn, for being an outspoken enthusiast and a critic who was wise beyond her years. Words can’t express my gratitude to my parents, Keith and Rosemary Nash, who gave me the gift of life and then made it worth living. I’d like to thank my immediate family, Venita, Scott, Susie, Beth, and Amelda, for all the books you read to me, for all the stories you told me, and for all the wonderful times we had growing up together, also for the continuing support you so generously give. Thanks to your spouses and to little Heather and Alexandria for being a key part of it all.

Gone but never forgotten are Joe and Lil Schmitt, my grandparents. They bought Valley View Farm in the 1930s and turned it into one of the finest dairy farms in the area. Many lives were enriched by having the farm remain in the family for several decades thereafter. I honored them and their memory with my Valley View Farm books for children, and most of the following stories also have a rural setting.

I send a special thanks to all my friends and teachers at the blind school, whose friendship and support will never be forgotten.

This book would still be in a Word file if not for the exhaustive assistance from my proofreader and editor, Leonore H. Dvorkin, of Denver, Colorado. She and her husband, David Dvorkin, have given hundreds of hours of their time as they read, re–read, edited, and formatted my various works in their effort to help bring my writing from birth to maturity, a daunting task. You can find Leonore at: www.leonoredvorkin.com

To my cousin and great friend, Jason Lillie, with whom I shared the commonality of outdoor life, laughter, and adventure, the essence of these stories. To all my aunts and uncles and cousins who believed in me when sometimes I didn’t, and who made me the official storyteller within a family of storytelling pros last year at the reunion.

Special thanks to Nancy Harrington, who suffered through my stories in their raw stages. Your laughter and encouragement were a reason to continue.

Thanks to my stepson, Regan Bentley, who is great company and who has overcome almost insurmountable obstacles. The world admires you greatly for that, Regan. To Kerrelyn and Jo and the Colorado crowd, who did more of the early editing. To Allen Utterback, who was a victim of Windows 95. Thanks to Mike Robertson, who loved my work, telling me I’d be amazed after my stories were worked over by a good editor – whom I found in Leonore, luckily, through a good friend.

To my best friend, Mark Webb, who is not only a role model, but a key player in the story A Shotgun Memory.

Thanks to Andrea and Mike and their daughters Cammi and Jessica, also to Monica, Andrea’s sister, for their praise and incredulity.

Hats off to Billy Himes, who regaled me with his own brand of humor and who tried to keep me on track as we grew up. Thanks to Judge Dave Lamar (now deceased), a highly respected Wyandot county judge who graciously volunteered to be my running partner every day, as well as to all my other good friends from the YMCA. Thanks to the South Dakota crowd, a part of my heritage. Thanks to Lisa and Dorothy and my great friend Reggie George for editing and appreciating what he read. A warm thanks to Belinda Caldwell at the south office. And finally, thanks to Gary Palmer for keeping my bike tuned and for all the good times that followed.

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Foreword

Reflections on Blindness, Family, Adventures, and Writing

Sitting at my desk in a cabin at the Lake of the Ozarks on a chilly April morning with a crackling oak fire in my Fisher wood stove, I look down the years that have brought me to this mellow state of nostalgia as we prepare to journey together to some exploits of high adventure and boyhood folly. Reflecting on the past, I often wonder, Did I really do the things I’m writing about? Depending on my mood, they often seem to have just happened, while at other times, they take on a surreal quality, like dreams in which you’re not really sure whether you’re the key player in events which are distant but familiar at the same time.

I’ve entertained numerous people for years with the telling of these experiences. It was at their urging that I decided to share them, for better or worse, with the world at large. The events in these stories would never have taken place without support from friends and family, support I’ve enjoyed and so much appreciate. They put up with my antics in such a way as to breed inspiration, even when I was a little outside the law, as was the case in A Shotgun Memory and A Spin Around the Block. My behavior could have been condemned, but instead was received with reactions of laughter and incredulity. That’s a good thing, because I’ve never intended to cause anyone grief or put them in a state of unrest with anything I’ve ever done.

Sometimes while traversing city streets with cane in hand, I’d give almost anything to blend anonymously into the busy maelstrom of life. To always stand out, white stick in hand, can wear mightily on one’s nerves. I feel constant, silent pressure from the many eyes which always follow my progress: pressure to perform flawlessly, to make perfect and precise street crossings, to immediately and precisely grasp the door handles of buildings, not fumbling, not groping. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen that way. Sometimes I run into things and fall down. Sometimes I get lost and am at the mercy of anyone I can find to get directions to speed me on my route to my ultimate destination.

One of the most difficult challenges for someone with physical differences is not to become jaded or disheartened by the sometimes negative reactions from the general public when you exhibit less than perfect behavior. They watch us in fascination or disgust as we go through our actions and sometimes fall short of our own personal expectations. For instance, if you see a blind person crossing a street, veering into traffic, stumbling over curbs or running into light posts, it’s hard