Chapter 1 “Beginning Of The Trail”
By admin On March 2nd, 2021.
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You have now arrived at the 1st chapter of the e-book, “Judgment Day-RX7″.
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If you are just arriving at this web site, you are invited to start here at the beginning of the trail (Chapter 1).
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The Scream of Nature – Wikipedia – public domain – by edvard munch c.1893…
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CHAPTER 1:
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“Beginning Of The Trail”
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THE LOVE OF GOD
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VERSE 1.
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“The love of God is greater far
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than tongue or pen can ever tell;
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It goes beyond the highest star,
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and reaches to the lowest Hell…
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VERSE 3.
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“…Could we with ink the ocean fill,
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And were the skies of parchment made,
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were every stalk on earth a quill,
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And every man a scribe by trade;
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To write the love of God above,
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would drain the ocean dry;
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Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
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though stretched from sky to sky.”
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Verse 3 was penciled on the wall of a narrow room in an insane asylum by a man said to have been demented.
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The profound lines were discovered when they laid him in his coffin.
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Summertime, 1980
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In a few seconds I will plunge to almost certain death!
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Anything to rid myself of this insane voice that keeps plaguing me!
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Even as I’m standing here at death’s door, he’s still mocking me… Talking, talking…always talking…”Ohhh Chu-u-u-ck! I’m gonna miss you, boo hoo! Sob sob. sniffle sniffle.”
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This…uh… “familiar friend” is a great mocker.
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And I’m at the end of my rope with this unwanted companion! “Ohh Chuck, don’t leave me! I’m gonna be sooo lonely! Sob, sniffle.”
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See!? See what a mocker he is!?
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Death will be a welcomed release from all this! And from him!
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At this point, I’m no longer talking with him.
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I’m just putting up with him.
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He talks! He mocks! And I just tolerate.
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But I can only barely tolerate him!
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What else can I do?
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He’s invisible!
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It’s not like I can just shoo him away!
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The Scream of Nature – Wikipedia – public domain – by edvard munch c.1893
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ONE WAY OUT!
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But now, I’ve found a way out!
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And who can blame me for ending it all?
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Who can disagree that taking this plunge is the only way out?
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Not to mention the terror of this situation which I’ve suffered for so long…
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So, what would you do if you were in my shoes?
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Well, if you think you’d do different, let me just tell you my story.
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Then you make up your own mind.
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Okay?
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Fair enough?
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Good! Then we’ll turn back the pages of time from this moment (late summer of 1980), to about 16 months earlier.
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Back to spring, 1979.
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That’s a good place to begin my story, or should I rather say, my true account of how, “All Hell broke loose!”
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The Scream of Nature – Wikipedia – public domain – by edvard munch c.1893
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Spring, 1979
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“Singin’ to the world, it’s time we let the spirit come in, (Let it come on in).
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“I’m singin’ to the world, everybody’s caught in a spin. (Look at where we’ve been).
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“We’ve been runnin’ around… year after year…blinded by pride…blinded by fear—
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“Cause it’s daybreak. If ya only believe,
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“it can be daybreak, ain’t no time to grieve,
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“said it’s daybreak, if ya only believe,
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“and let it shine, shine, shine….all around the world”…….
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“Far out, man!” That was my last song for a whole month!
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As I made my way out of the auditorium to my car, I noticed my hands were starting to tremble again… “Maybe a month’s vacation will stop this shaking.”, I told myself.
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I probably shook my head, as if to shake away these thoughts, so I wouldn’t stress about it.
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But frankly… it worried me.
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I didn’t want to believe I was having some sort of a breakdown, or whatever.
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I didn’t want to acknowledge that I was losing control.
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AN INTRODUCTION IS IN ORDER
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This is me. My name is Chuck.
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I’m your typical 28-year-old.
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Typical for back in 1979, that is.
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Do I look a little clueless?
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Well, I am. I mean I was.
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But all that was about to change.
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“Oh, and how do you like my little metallic cobalt/black sports car?
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It’s an RX-7. Just got it, not too long ago. Pretty cool huh?”
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Mazda rx7-1st Generation – wikipedia – GNU-free-user-license
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NEXT DAY…
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“GET YER MOTOR RUNNIN’…HEAD OUT ON THE HIGHWAY…”
(Opening lyrics of the 1968 Steppenwolf song, “Born To Be Wild”)
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Anyway, I was ready for a much-needed vacation. I was all packed.
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The motorhome was ready to roll.
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A whole month off!
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From work.
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From the club.
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From this local beauty pageant that I was asked to perform a song at.
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Oh well, it was just a one-song gig… and not to mention alotta pretty ladies there!
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And now this last commitment was done with, and there was nothing between me and a trip through the Southwest: Disneyland, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, and finally Lake Tahoe.
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A real 30-day “dream vacation”!
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So, I climbed up into the cab of the rented motorhome. Ready to roll.
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But something caught my eye. Something in the ash tray. Someone left something there in the ashtray…
“Wow! A Neil Diamond cassette!
I wonder who left it here?
Hey, there’s no note attached!
Oh well.
Beautiful weather!
Great music!
Great day!”
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So, it was time to start up the engine. Put in this new cassette, turn the music way up… and roll out…onto the awaiting highway!
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Neil Diamond belting out his tunes, with his raw, one-of-a-kind style!
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“Goodbye schedules!
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Goodbye gigs!
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Goodbye restaurant!
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HELL-O HIGHWAY!!”
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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license
Picture of motor-home courtesy – wikipedia Public Domain.
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THE GRAND CANYON
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ABOUT TEN DAYS LATER… We were just walking down into the canyon.
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This was great! Weather was just right. And hikers were just practically skipping down the trail.
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Like a walk in the park. Better! The force of gravity just kinda carried the people down, down, down (as we descended, I noticed it getting gradually hotter).
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TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA…NONE FOR ME!!!
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After about three hours, I reached the bottom.
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Walking down along the river trail at the bottom, I began to get worried about the journey back up to the top of the canyon, the next day…
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…”Man…that’s a long way back up that steep trail!”
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If it took three hours to walk down, then how long will it take to get back up…uh…maybe I could rent a pack mule at the visitor center here at the bottom.
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Maybe I’ll find Sister Sara. (You know, like that old Clint Eastwood movie, “Two Mules For Sister Sara”.)
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She’ll have an extra mule! One for her, and one for me! Ha ha…Uh Hmm-m.
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So, I walked through the crowded restaurant/tavern, asking about a mule.
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No such luck though!
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Oh well… I don’t have to make that climb till tomorrow!
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And tomorrow’s tomorrow! And that’s a long time from now! Right?
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Juancito pack mule – wikipedia – public domain
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BLIND MAN AT BOTTOM…
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I decided to buy an ice cream bar at the open-air food stand at the little community on the canyon floor.
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There were a number of people ahead of me in line.
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And as I waited in line, I noticed the young man who worked at the window was wearing extremely thick glasses, which also had a magnifying glass attached to his already super-thick glasses…
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…”Man, that poor guy is almost blind!”,
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And even with those thick lenses, this nearly blind clerk still had to hold each coin right up close to his attached magnifying glasses!
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It was impossible to not feel bad for this poor guy’s struggles!
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Yeah, even a brash young arrogant schmuck like myself could feel sympathy for this guy!
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THAT EVENING…
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WHAT’S A BROTHER FOR?… That evening there were hikers spread out all over the canyon floor, about 50 or 100 feet apart with their sleeping bags.
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And so, I went for my bag.
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Actually, it wasn’t exactly MY bag.
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I kind-of just borrowed it from my brother.
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It was such a nice compact little bag.
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And it was just hanging there on the wall, begging to be borrowed. “What are brothers for!?”
So, I grabbed it on the way out the door, as I left for my vacation.
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“WHAT’S THIS!?”
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But upon opening it, I was shocked to discover, it wasn’t a sleeping bag at all!
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“IT’S A PARKA! A LITTLE… NYLON… PARKA!!!“
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No wonder it was so compact! “What am I gonna do!?”
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I was down here at the bottom of the Grand Canyon!
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Not too many options!
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And so, I laid down on the hard ground, and tried to pull this lightweight parka over my feet and legs.
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And so began an all-night wrestling match with this little parka.
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Needless to say, the parka won the wrestling match!
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MORNING AT BOTTOM OF CANYON
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After tossing and turning most of the night, finally the light of dawn arrived.
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All the campers began to roll up their sleeping bags.
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I rolled up my little parka and put it back in its little nylon bag.
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ARTIST’S VIEWPOINT…
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I looked up at the steep canyon walls, as I was instructed to do.
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I took a long look at these massive rocks of the canyon walls.
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A customer of our restaurant, a really great artist named Don, a very well-known nature painter back in Klamath Falls, suggested I take special note of the canyon walls in the early morning light.
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And so, I looked. And they were beautiful!
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And very soon, the sun began to peak over the rim of the canyon.
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And the light began to spread itself over the walls, as if it was a coat of paint running down the walls of this ancient canyon.
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A paint of light. Spreading itself evenly over this ancient work of art.
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Wasn’t sure that’s what Don was talking about…but couldn’t notice much else.
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Canyon Walls, Courtesy USPS & Wikipedia. Pub. Dom.
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MULE-FREE ME…
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And in a few minutes after breakfast we began our ascent back out of this amazing work of nature.
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There must have been about several hundred people or so, who spent the night in the canyon.
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It wasn’t too long in the ascent, when I probably began to surmise, that it was becoming easier to tell the smart people from the stupid ones.
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The smart ones, of course, were on pack mules!
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I was still tired from a pretty much sleepless night.
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But on the other hand, I had been jogging back home in Klamath for the past several years now and was in pretty decent physical condition.
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However, I had just resumed smoking several weeks earlier but had not yet begun to suffer the results.
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The first part of the climb was fairly gentle, for an hour or so.
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But before long, I had to take a rest.
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The trail steepened into what is known as “switchbacks”.
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They went for some distance, and then switched back in the opposite direction.
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So there seemed to be an endless number of these “switchbacks”.
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Time passed. Finally, one hour…and then two hours…three.
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We just couldn’t tell how far it was to the top.
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These sheer walls made that impossible!
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Just then, my hiking partner began to swoon. I got really worried that she might faint, and fall off these narrow trails, down into the canyon below.
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Those who were smart enough to have a mule, were passing us hikers by.
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We had to stop and hug the canyon walls each time, to let them by, and wish that we were on one!
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Actually, it was amazing how sure-footed those mules were!
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On the other hand, I trusted my own feet more than I trusted those mules.
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They looked pretty scary as their big rear-ends made a wide swing around each sharp turn of those sharp switch-back corners!
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Grand Canyon National Park – Bright Angel Trial, Mule Trip – Flicker
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ONLY WAY OUT OF THIS HELL-HOLE…JUST KEEP WALKING UPWARD!
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Four or five hours into this, the hikers began to stretch our necks to get a glimpse of the trail’s end.
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But in our disappointment, there was just another switch-back.
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Switch-back after switch-back.
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It was getting really monotonous!
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But there is no other alternative. If you want to get out of this HELL-HOLE alive, you just have to keep walking upward, along the narrow pathway!
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Five hours finally turned into six. No end in sight.
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Six turned into seven. Still only one switch-back after another.
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But then I considered how tedious it must have been for those who originally carved out these switchbacks.
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The pack-mules kept passing. I kept taking endless breaks. More and more I looked…hoping to see the words, “TRAILS END“.
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But just another switchback.
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Now it was about eight hours of hiking this seemingly endless trail.
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Seemingly, a thousand times, I thought to myself…“When will this tedious upward trek ever end!?”
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Photo of the “Bright Angel Trail” courtesy of USPS.
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TRAIL’S END…
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It just ended!
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Yeah, suddenly, without a hint, the trail just ended!
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Our journey was over! Done! Finished! We reached the top!
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And needless to say, we just collapsed on a soft green grass provided by the Park Service!
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And so did the others! And it felt like Heaven!
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We made it! Yeah! We did it! “Mules? Who needs em!”
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In my short walk back to the motor-home I stopped to talk to a park employee.
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This person informed me that some cross-country runners had just run down to the bottom and back up to the top in about 3 hours.
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“Three hours!?”, I exclaimed incredulously…“Both ways!?”
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This information took the air out of my now-rapidly-growing-ego-bubble.
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But at least I made it!
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And was I ever glad it was over!
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Looking back on this, of course I’m happy I experienced this unforgettable upward journey.
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And now it’s just a memory…an experience to remember for all time!
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But would I do it over again? I’ll let you figure that one out!
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Courtesy USPS & Wikipedia. Pub. Dom.
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“SIGNS, SIGNS, EVERYWHERE A SIGN…”
(Title of the 1971 song by The 5 Man Electrical Band)
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Later that evening, when I was back in my motorhome, I turned on the TV.
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It was my favorite new comedian. He was doing some skit, in which he supposedly had lost everything in life.
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There he was, living in a dumpster.
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But just then, his friends came and pulled him out of the dumpster.
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They had found some pennies he had invested years earlier.
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And to this comedian’s delight, they showed how his pennies had accrued while he was in this disheveled condition.
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So, he wasn’t broke after all.
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Well, this comedy sketch was really funny at the time.
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I actually can’t remember why.
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Well, this comedian was just plain funny!
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And so, I laid there on the motor-home couch and laughed so hard, I almost fell onto the floor.
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Little did I know, that in just a few months, I was about to lose all my earthly wealth.
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And little was I aware, that I would likewise be scrounging like a beggar.
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And nobody could’ve convinced me that I was gonna be cast into an abyss much deeper and wider than this Grand Canyon outside my motorhome door!
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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license
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UPWARD TO ZION!
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After the Grand Canyon, it was northward and upward to Zion National Park.
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The motorhome was rolling along the highway just fine.
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As I approached the state border, I noticed the beautiful red rocks of the desert.
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And every so often there were little stands with Navajo blankets and jewelry for sale.
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It was really beautiful in its own way out there in the desert.
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I wouldn’t want to live there. But I’m sure those who do live there, love it there!
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As I said, the motor-home was tooling along just fine; just fine that is, until the wind began to blow.
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And soon it began to blow harder!
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And finally, it was blowing so hard I feared the motorhome might blow completely over!
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I tried to go really slow, but the wind just kept getting stronger it seemed.
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Finally, I pulled over into some service station, rest-stop…
…”Should I wait out the wind-storm?”
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Although I was an atheist, I vaguely recall that I sensed that there was a greater power preventing me from going forward.
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Or maybe I didn’t.
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I can’t exactly recall.
But anyway, it sounds good…so I think I’m gonna go with it!
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Finally, I decided not to wait. I turned the motorhome around and backtracked to California.
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And the further we backtracked, the more the wind died down.
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I guess it was the right decision to turn around.
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Beautiful, beautiful Zion would have to wait until perhaps…another day.
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NAVAJO WOMEN WEAVE A RUG AT TRADING POST ON THE NAVAJO RESERVATION wikipedia public domain
Photo of dust storm courtesy Wing-Chi Poon wikipedia share alike license. Click here for link.
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UNSEEN SPEECH-WRITER!?!
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In September, I went to our 10-year high-school reunion in Salem.
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Yeah, I was looking buff, working out alot!
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Also had arrived in my sleek little black sports-car! Cobalt black, ya know!
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I was all geared up to impress!
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But then, something really strange occurred!
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You see, as I sat there talking, I heard a non-descript voice in my mind, coaching me on just what I should say, in attempt to impress them.
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Needless to mention, this was unnerving!
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But his advice sounded pretty good, so I followed it.
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And quickly just shrugged it off.
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And that was the last of that…for now!
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The first night, there was a large gathering at some ballroom in Salem…maybe at the Marion Hotel.
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Anyway, an ex-girlfriend came up and asked if I would do the introductions.
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And so, feeling pretty good about myself, I agreed.
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And just as I was up at the microphone, feeling like I was getting on a roll, (saying something like, “We’re gonna have a big night tonight, and a bigger weekend!”), to which an old buddy standing in the large crowd, made some sarcastic quip, chortling something to the effect, “Not as big as your ego, Whittemore!”
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I suppose his rude barb got a pretty good laugh.
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But hey, in the clubs, you either just ignore, or you throw some clever retort back at the heckler.
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And since I couldn’t think of any clever come-back, I pretty much just ignored him and kept on speaking.
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“BAD MOON RISING”
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(FOUR PROPHETS OF DOOM)
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It was now October 1979. Five months after my vacation in the Southwest.
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And I was back to work at the restaurant.
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My singing partner and I began a new gig at a local steakhouse three nights a week.
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One afternoon, while rehearsing down at the club, we decided to play a few hands of poker. Five-Card-Draw.
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After dealing the cards, my partner went to the restroom. While she did, I looked at my cards. She had dealt me FOUR KINGS!! My eyes bugged out.
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In a few minutes she returned, and we resumed our game. I asked for no cards.
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When I laid down my hand and she saw those four kings, she accused me of cheating.
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I can’t say I blame her since she had left the room, leaving me there alone with my cards.
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Well, she got angry and needless to say, this brought our card game to a swift end.
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But looking back, I have to say, this was a soothsaying, prophetic moment!
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Because in a few weeks I was soon to encounter the King of the Universe!
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And the time had come for that King to pronounce Judgment on this unsuspecting night club musician (me!)
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And looking back, I can say…these four kings dealt to me that day were just “four prophets of doom!”
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… MY DOOM!
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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license
King playing cards wikimedia GNU Free Documentation License
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“HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?”…
(Lyrics from the 1963 Chubby Checker song, “The Limbo Rock”)
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I was on my break during one packed-house night.
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A man who was crippled happened to walk through the bar.
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And, in order to make some ladies laugh, I mimicked the odd way this crippled man walked.
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One of the ladies laughed.
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The other said, “That wasn’t nice!”
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I suppose the one who laughed probably didn’t think it was funny either.
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I didn’t usually make such a low-grade jest.
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However, there was one time back at high school that I also made fun of a crippled girl in front of others.
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And in 15 years since that thoughtless high school prank, I still hadn’t learned my lesson!
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But I was gonna learn my lesson!
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Soon!
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REAL SOON!!!
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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license
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“HOW DOES IT FEEL, TO BE ON YER OWN…LIKE A ROLLING STONE!”
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This particular night was Halloween, as I recall. And as I said, it was standing-room-only there at the Stockman’s Social Club!
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Among the many patrons dressed in costumes, there was one guy in particular whose costume really reminded me of Bob Dylan.
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I noticed him, because he kept dancing with my very hot girlfriend!
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But since I was performing and couldn’t interject myself between them, I chose instead to make a few slightly humorous jests over my microphone through the night, about him being, “Bob Dylan’s ghost”.
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Well, as the night wore on, I began stretching my neck to see where Mr. Dylan’s “ghost” and my girlfriend were, but neither of them seemed to be around any longer.
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They just seemed to disappear!
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Well, that’s what ghosts do! Right? Disappear?
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And, well, so much for me having a girlfriend.
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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license
Bob Dylan – 1984 – cropped and colored image – Wikipedia – share-alike license by Chris Hakkens
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“ONE EYE IS TAKEN FOR AN EYE”…
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Little did I know, that in just a few weeks, I myself would become the object of pity and possibly the object of mimicry as well!
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Yeah, my bad karma was gonna come back around to bite me, and bite my hard! REALLY HARD!
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And I suppose at some point in time, I could’ve been talking with customers in some bar somewhere.
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And a certain song was playing.
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And as I drank down my bourbon, or whatever, I never dreamed that this certain song (“Bad Moon Rising”) and those four kings dealt to me, were gonna be the only harbingers and forebodings I was gonna get…for what lay in store for me, in just a few short days!
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Yeah, this song was exactly telling it like it is!
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And I just thought it was a good dance song!
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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license
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BAD MOON RISING
(Title of the mega-hit song by Creedence Clearwater Revival)
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“I see the bad moon arising. I see trouble on the way. I see earthquakes and lightning. I see bad times today.”
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CHORUS: “Don’t go around tonight,
Well, it’s bound to take your life,
There’s a bad moon on the rise.”
SECOND VERSE:
“I hear hurricanes a-blowin’.
I know the end is coming soon. I fear rivers over flowin’.
I hear the voice of rage and ruin.”
CHORUS:
“Don’t go around tonight,
Well, it’s bound to take your life,
There’s a bad moon on the rise”
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THIRD VERSE:
“Hope you got your things together.
Hope you are quite prepared to die.
Looks like we’re in for nasty weather.
One eye is taken for an eye.”
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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license
Bad Moon Rising – by Makelessnoise – for Wikipedia – Share-alike License
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Go to Chapter 2, just click this link…
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Ch. 2: “Atheist-2-Believer In 1 Second Flat!”
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So, this happy atheist, Chuck, was going to become a believer in just a week or so.
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And this conversion just might set the land-speed record for conversions!
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Or should I rather say, it might set the HELL’S speed-record for conversions!
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