The Single Dragonfly Book 1 - Early Adventures

By Tony Lawrence

While Tony Lawrence has authored numerous technical publications over the years in his career in the energy industry as a petrophysicist, this is his first book that annotates his amazing personal life experiences while traveling the world. Much like the path of a dragonfly, from one place to the next, this is the story of his life, an anthology set of books from his humble beginnings to one exciting adventure after another. Follow him from his home-sweet-home in Alabama to exotic places all over the world, such as the frozen Arctic and the highest peak in North America, to the Thousand Islands and Bali in the South Pacific, along with Europe, Africa and Asia along the way. See how he was able to integrate business with pleasure during his career in fulfilling many items on his "Bucket List.” The stories found inside are based on true life events that are often ironic and funny and which, occasionally, border on the "believe it or not" category.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781365578458

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The Single Dragonfly Book 1 - Early Adventures

THE SINGLE DRAGONFLY BOOK 1

EARLY ADVENTURES

TONY LAWRENCE

Copyright © 2016 by Tony Lawrence

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: <2016>

ISBN <978-1-365-57845-8>

Lulu Press, Inc.

www.lulu.com

Foreword

Work in Jakarta started off fast and furious, with a few distractions. The first thing I noticed from the window in my office at the Panin Bank building, overlooking the roundabout at the end of Jalan Sudirman thoroughfare, was an amazing statue we called the Pizza Man. The statue was called that since it looked like a man delivering a flaming pizza on the run. Peering out the window, I said to myself, This looks like something out of a foreign country. Then I reminded myself that this was a foreign country, having unique customs much different than back home. This was going to be interesting and, as it turned out, one of the many reasons I came to love Indonesia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia

JakartaPizzaManStatue-Google

Much like the path of a dragonfly, from one place to the next, this is the story of my life, an anthology set of books from my humble beginnings to one exciting adventure after another. Follow me to be a part of this incredible journey to exotic places all over the world, such as the frozen Arctic and the highest peak in North America, to the Thousand Islands and Bali in the South Pacific, along with Europe, Africa and Asia along the way. Be a part of these adventures, starting from my home-sweet-home in Alabama to other intriguing places, far away. See how I was able to integrate business with pleasure during my career in fulfilling many items on my Bucket List. The stories found inside are based on true life events that are often ironic and funny and which, occasionally, border on the believe it or not category.

Chapter 1 Background

I was born a poor child, the seventh and last in a large family, in the small town of Opp, Alabama near the Florida border in 1950. My 10 year old sister, Sara, passed away while I was in my mother’s womb and I am sure that is one of the many factors that would shape my life. All six of my brothers and sisters had been born at home so I was the first to be born in a hospital, primarily out of concern for my mother’s age of 45. I joked with my siblings that I was worth more, since I had cost more to be born.

My parents were farmers who got married during The Great Depression and, after several years of share-cropping, were able to buy their own 100 acre farm south of Opp in a community known as Horn Hill in Covington County, Alabama. At the time I was born, we had no running water, no indoor toilet, no electric or gas stove and no air-conditioning, nor central heat, of course. We had an outdoor well where we would draw water in a bucket as needed and where we stored some items, such as milk, to keep cool. During my first few years I remember taking baths in a small Number 2 washtub. My mother cooked on a wood stove and we used a fireplace stocked with wood to keep warm in the winter. We were so poor, we could not even pay attention, as a friend of mine later joked.

Members of the family included my mother and father, Nora and Layman, (b. 1905 and 1907, d. 1998 and 1983, respectively), followed by my oldest brother, Harry, (b. 1932, d. 1976), sister, Hettie, (b. 1934), brother, Edmon, (b. 1936), sister Sara, (b. 1939, d. 1950), sister Syble, (b.1941) and my closest brother, James Donald (b. 1947).

For the extended family photo: Top row-Charles Cook (Syble’s Husband), Harry, Edmon, James Donald, me. Middle row- Judy Steeley (Edmon’s wife), Hettie, Dad, Mom, Syble, Bottom row grandchildren- Paul Lawrence, John Cook, Karen Cook and Rebecca Lawrence.

My dad did not have much money growing up but he would tell me stories of his childhood friend, Big Jim Folsom, who became Governor of Alabama. Apparently, they used to go skinny dipping together around Cripple Creek in Coffee County when they were kids. Mama would sing a song about it…Going down to Cripple Creek…going on a run…going down to Cripple Creek…gonna have some fun. A little different version than the one from the group, The Band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIw20N-yw8c

Big Jim really was big, six feet eight inches tall and weighed 275 pounds, as you can see from this photo of him with the head of the Alabama Legislature and standing beside the Alabama football star. He also had a large family.

Believe it or not, Big Jim was pro-integration. Autherine Juanita Lucy was the first Black person to attend the University of Alabama while he was Governor, before being expelled for inciting a riot and for her own safety. Several years later, George Wallace became Governor and did his symbolic segregation stand in the doorway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autherine_Lucy

Meanwhile, back on the farm, even though it was not the largest in the community, the farmstead was still fairly big (for a child growing up) at approximately 100 acres. It included the main house, an old store, a large barn with separate stalls for two mules and several other stalls for sorting or milking cows, a small smokehouse and a second smaller shotgun style home at the northwestern part of the property. The old store still had burglar bars on the windows, but the family later converted it to a second barn for storing cotton, corn and farm implements.

The main house was originally an old one bedroom wooden structure built around the turn of the century that at one time used a large outdoor battery house to provide electricity. The old battery house was still there with the large cement block to support the large battery. My dad said the original deed to the house was made from sheepskin. There was a small side room for storing canned foods that also doubled as a second bedroom for the kids. The living room also doubled as the kid’s bedroom. Fortunately, at the time of my birth, we and the neighbors did have electricity as part of the farmer’s cooperative.

When I was around the age of six, my parents built onto the house by adding a large living room plus two more bedrooms and the side room was converted into an indoor bathroom. A one-car garage was also built in.

It was definitely a thrill when Pa installed a deep well water pump to around 200 feet so we could have running water to the main house and to the barn. Furthermore, it was nice to have an indoor Hot Point brand sink for washing dishes that included a small water heater that was also piped to the new indoor bathroom tub and shower. Of course, the wooden stove was replaced with an electric stove which saved a lot of work chopping firewood, but which also seemed to diminish the taste of foods cooked