Experience

By Ron Briggs

In Experience, Ron Briggs gives the reader a glimpse of the life he lived in rural upstate New York as a child growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. In Part One of the book, he shares some of the games and other activities in which he, his family, and contemporaries participated, in those rough and tumble times before modern sophistication changed the lives of everyday Americans. Experience illustrates some of the ways children of the time occupied themselves on a very meager budget, yet had rewarding outcomes and learned skills necessary to move into a bigger world. Part Two follows Ron through some of his harrowing life experiences that may easily have resulted in tragedy, but rather, the reader is treated to the lighter side of those events. He captures the gravity of each situation and celebrates the eventual outcome.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479708406

Ron Briggs

Ron Briggs is a retired employee of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). He was born in 1949 and grew up in the small hamlet of Perryville, New York. He earned a Master of Science Degree in Wildlife and Range Management from Texas A & I University and spent his NRCS career in eastern Kansas. Ron is married and he and his wife have two grown children, who also live in Kansas. He and his wife enjoy spending time with their grandchildren. Ron feels it his duty to share his childhood experiences with anyone who will listen.

Book preview

Part One

Games

Tippy

Tippy was the family dog before I was born. As a result, he was pretty well bonded with my brother who was two years older than me. The best I can recall, Tippy was a small brown and black terrier of mixed breeding and a frisky personality. I was never able to establish any kind of friendship with the dog, and for that I feel a little remorseful. But Tippy was at my brother’s command and that usually meant trouble for me. From the earliest time I can remember, just my eye contact with Tippy brought a low growl and bared teeth. Brother had him trained to chase me every time I stepped off the front porch. A favorite game of his was to line up himself, my neighbor (a year older than me), and me with Tippy sitting a few feet away eagerly watching my brother. At Go! we would take off running. Of course, being the youngest and slowest, Tippy caught up to me first, usually resulting in torn pants, and all too often, torn flesh on my behind or back of my leg. Whether the dog would have ever bit the other guys like he did me is up for conjecture, but he had a great fondness for chomping into my hind-quarter while I desperately tried to escape his gnashing jaws. Being a small dog, he had extremely sharp teeth. I would eventually fall down, expecting to be eaten, but once he had me down, Tippy would just run to play with my brother. Naturally my brother and the neighbor boy only had to outrun me, so I was always the loser in this game. I would go crying to Mommy and she would say It’s only a game—the dog is just playing. You need to be friends and play along with him. She would scold my brother for getting the whole thing started, but that did not end the game. My brother seemed to think the game was hilarious and could not get enough of it. When I refused to play along and just stand there when the others took off running, Tippy would come up to me snarling and showing his teeth. If I still refused to run, he would start yapping and nipping at my legs, forcing me to run so he could bite my