Farmer: Chronicles of a Life Worth Living

By Dan Rogers

What's really important in life? Do you dare to dream? Have you taken your shot? Prepare to fasten your seatbelt as you ride shotgun with Dan Rogers through a high-stakes poker game of life. As you travel from chronicle to chronicle, you will begin to realize what is important to you within your individual life through lessons that he has learned. At the end of your journey, you will find yourself looking at the world in a much brighter light.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483696522

Dan Rogers

Dan Rogers was born in Cherry Point, NC and now resides in Biloxi, MS. He spent two and half years as a Marine Corps Reservist and another fifteen on active duty in the U.S. Army. He earned an associate’s degree in Liberal Arts from the University of South Carolina and a Bachelor’s Degree in Multidisciplinary Studies from Grantham University and currently is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Grantham University as well. He enjoys writing about the phenomena of life and reaches out to readers of all ages.

Book preview

FARMER

CHRONICLES OF A LIFE WORTH LIVING

DAN ROGERS

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The story of my life, Have you ever heard someone say that? Perhaps they used it in a fashion to explain their bad luck or the outcome of events. In a sense these writings are the story of my life or coincidently they are the story of all our lives. As you read these occurrences within my life, you will begin to realize that there is not some sort of protagonist or antagonist in which they slay the forces of evil or destroy the powers of all that is good. You will not find a self-proclaimed hero in my writings, in fact, what you will find is that the hero in this book is you. This is a book for the everyday man or woman who works tenaciously just to get by. It’s for that private sitting at a checkpoint in some country that he can’t pronounce freezing his tail off. It’s something that each and everyone us can pick-up and dare to dream and hopefully realize that maybe they are living their dream. As you read these chronicles, I hope that my experiences trigger thoughts of your own and although you are technically reading something that I wrote, you are relating it to your own experiences and ideas, making you the hero in my book. I have enclosed a bold, black lettering system that produces a message that I live by. Who knows, maybe you will adapt the same or compose your own. I wish you well on your journey… . Good Luck… . and Godspeed.

Copyright © 2013 by Dan Rogers.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013916224

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4836-9651-5

Softcover 978-1-4836-9650-8

Ebook 978-1-4836-9652-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 10/14/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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CONTENTS

Author’s Note

I

The Deal

II

Captain Rogers

III

Muffin

IV

Mole and Lobster Claw

V

Rag doll

VI

Farmer

VII

The Flop

VIII

UWF

IX

Parris Island

X

Airborne

XI

Point Break

XII

Tammany Hall

XIII

Waegwan

XIV

The Turn

XV

Lemon Pound Cake

XVI

The Rock

XVII

When the Saints come marching in

XVIII

The Soaker Fortune

XIX

T-Box

XX

Home Alone 2

XXI

The Lost Child

XXII

Dot

XXIII

The River

Dedicated to my mother and father

I

The Deal

I don’t know much, but I know this: I was born, and I am going to die. What happens in between rests solely upon me. I am not sure if it was Divine intervention or the pillars of evolution that brought me to the foyer of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, but the fact of the matter is that I am here, dressed in a three piece Armani suit overshadowed by a green-faced Rolex on my left wrist and one-hundred thousand dollars cash in my pockets. I take my walk. You know that walk. Everyone in their life has had their walk, some more than others. It might have been at your high school prom as the homecoming queen or simply down a friendly neighborhood street. A walk where all eyes are on you and just for that brief moment in time, you are it and you realize that life is not all that bad because you will always be you and nothing will ever change that.

As I walk through the foyer, a mixed potpourri of cigarette smoke, fresh lilac and Chanel #5 strikes my sense of smell like a wrecking ball might destroy a condemned building. A middle-aged man sitting on a Victorian style bench smoking a cigarette looks up at me and his eyes tell me a story, a life of adventure, a life of love, and a life of despair. His appearance tells me where he is. Unshaven and unkept tells me that he has lost it all and he sits there wondering where he is going to eat his next meal or where he is going to lay his head tonight. His future is untold and it is now what he makes of it. He took his shot and lost. A lifetime of memories and a world of dreams shattered in a single night. Perhaps everyone takes their shot in some shape or form, whether it be at a dream seemingly unattainable, a love seemingly so real or the pursuit of something seemingly so indifferent. Nevertheless, I continue my walk. I pass through the main floor of the casino. The glimmer of lights reflects off the mirrored ceiling like the morning sun reflects off the Sava River on a cold winter morning. The sounds of jackpots are ringing in my ears, while the exuberant patrons holler at their feat. Have they really won? Or is it just a shining moment in a life lost years ago. Would they tell if I asked them? Or would they give me a story telling me how lucky they are and never point out how much they had lost. Nevertheless, I continue my walk. I pass a security guard sporting a high and tight haircut and dressed in black slacks and a white shirt with creases that could cut through a sheet of paper, tipping me off to his military background. He gives me that nod of assurance and though no words are ever exchanged, we have a mutual respect for one another. Sometimes the best words spoken are never spoken at all.

Out of the corner my eye, I spot a cocktail waitress who gives me her signature smile. A woman of great beauty who has no trouble spotting money and would do anything for a rich man to sweep her off her feet and take care of her for the rest of her life. I return her smile with one of my own and a look that tells her that I recognize her beauty and appreciate the offer, but for now I walk alone and she will have to continue to work the night-shift to support her three kids until the day her prince charming walks down the main floor. Nevertheless, I continue my walk.

I pass by the Blackjack table just as the dealer flips over Blackjack and crushes the dreams of the couple from Indiana betting the ten dollar minimum who reply Oh well, we are just here on vacation having a good time. I think to myself, you truly only have a good time when you win.

I am at the bar now and a pretty little blonde bartender serves me a seven and seven and a shot of Jack. She tells me a story of how she is working the bar and going to school to be a nurse, but we both know that she will continue to work the bar for the next twenty years and feel sorry for herself for what she could have been. I am sure she has relayed that story to thousands of guys who have crossed her bar and had a drink. I down my shot and wash it down with a swig of the seven and seven and leave her a twenty and wish her well in her schooling. Sometimes the truth is