This will be a short story from my past. I started life in the late 1940's. I spent the next 22 years growing up in Napa California. This story is about a fellow named Mickey. Mickey was about 50 when i first met him. He was a stocky fellow about 5 foot 6 and weighed about 150 pounds. He was part American Indian he claimed. He was balding, but had tuffs of white hair growing out of his ears. We would kid him about his lack of hair by saying (hey chief, your losing your feathers.) He always wore brown button up shirts with the sleeves cut off. I never saw him wear a coat ever. Whenever you met up with him, he would not greet you with a hi, but hey kid ya got a cigarette ? I never saw him work at a regular job. He was a freelance worker. He would do almost anything to make a buck. haul trash, do yard work and his favorite was picking up scrap metal. On one particular hot summer day Mickey and his oldest son who was about 10 at the time were driving thru a rural area of the valley in his little flatbed pickup a 1940 Dodge 3/4 ton with a flatbed and side boards. Lo and behold Mickey spots a bloated dead horse out in a field. Mickey tells his son that the dead horse is valuable and they can take it to the rendering plant and get x amount of pennies a pound for it. After a quick chat and a free cigarette from the deceased horses owner they get permission to remove it. The farmer is more than happy to get rid of it, thus saving him the work to bury it. Remember it's summer and the horse is bloated and starting to smell. Mickey ties a rope around the horse and drags it under a nearby tree. In the back of the truck Mickey has a rope block and tackle. Mickey's son stands on the back of the truck and hangs the block and tackle from the tree. They try and lift the horse, but it is to heavy. Mickey then gets a saw from behind the seat and tells his boy to go see if the farmer has some tie wire they can have. His son soon returns with some wire and sees his father has cut the horse in several pieces. Mickey tells his son to take his pocket knife and poke holes in the horses hide and to sew the parts shut so the horses inner parts don't fall out thus reducing the weight of the valuable horse. By now the farmers family has come out to watch this folly unfold. Mickey and his son get all the chunks loaded on the truck and bid the farmer a farewell and thank you. So off they go with their prize tied down. Unknown to Mickey and his son, the horses inner parts are falling out and dragging down the road behind the truck. After a few miles they hear a siren behind them and Mickey pulls over. A CHP officer walks up to the truck and makes a few wise cracks and writes mickey a ticket for $4.00 Mickey and his son reload their valuable prize and finish their trip to the rendering plant. They have the load weighed and unload Stinky the horse as they have named him. Mickey got just over $2.00 for Stinky. Now they head home to tell the rest of the family of their good fortune, but leave out the part about the $4.00 ticket. This is a real story. Really. Mickey passed away in 1969 and knowing his family, they probably took him to the rendering plant to join Stinky. My good friend Brian bought that truck from Mickey in 1959 and still has it and drives it everyday for his wrecking yard business.
EvilDr235
