Big Dave

Robert W. Callis

Description

A coming of age adventure novel set in the summer at 1941 at Wyoming.
In the summer of 1941, the area around Kemmerer, Wyoming, is still in the grip of the Great Depression. World War II rages overseas in Europe and Asia but is not yet a reality in the United States.
This is the story of eight young men, newly graduated from Kemmerer High School, as they make their journey from boyhood to manhood in a summer filled with new challenges, new opportunities, and new dangers. Some will succeed. Some will fail. This is their story.

Sujets

• Action
• Fiction
• Adventure
• Bear
• Indian Point

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 03 avril 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781663252111
• Langue: English

Extrait

BIG DAVE
THE SUMMER OF 1941
 
 
 
 
Robert W. Callis
 
 
 

 
 
BIG DAVE
THE SUMMER OF 1941
 
Copyright © 2023 Robert W. Callis.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
iUniverse
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6632-5210-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-5211-1 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023906198
 
 
 
iUniverse rev. date: 03/29/2023
Contents
Foreword
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Chapter Seventy
Chapter Seventy-One
Chapter Seventy-Two
Chapter Seventy-Three
Chapter Seventy-Four
Chapter Seventy-Five
Chapter Seventy-Six
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Acknowledgements
Books by Robert W. Callis
Foreword
This book is dedicated to David Nelson, Kemmerer, Wyoming. He was the inspiration for the character Big Dave Carlson in my stories. He passed away several years ago. When I met him in 1975, it was in a restaurant outside of Kemmerer, Wyoming. He came up to my table and told me to my face that he heard I was trying to pull a fast one on the other bank in Kemmerer. I paused and then looked up and told him straight to his face that I knew what I was doing, and I couldn’t say the same for the folks at the other bank. He was surprised. So was I. From that moment on, we became the best of friends.
David Nelson was what John Wayne would have been like if he had been a real person and not just an actor. David was a big Nordic man. He stood about six foot four inches high and weighed around two hundred and fifty pounds. He had a friendly face with bright blue eyes that tended to get cloudy when he was pissed. His hands were twice the size of mine. He was smart and strong. He looked like the modern Viking he was.
Over the next few years, he took me under his wing and taught me all about Kemmerer and the state of Wyoming. He taught me about hunting, fishing, tracking, and animals, both wild and domestic. He taught me to shoot a rifle and how to manage cattle and sheep.
David Nelson was my crash course in the history and the nature of Lincoln County, Wyoming. That included its people, both good and bad, and somewhere in between.
David was a Jack Mormon. He was a Mormon, but he bent the rules when it suited him. He was kind, tough, but capable of extreme violence. He was a true man of the West. He taught me how to stand on my own two feet in a changing world.
David Nelson was truly larger than life.
At his funeral, his son David Nelson Jr. told me his dad thought of me as a son. I would have been proud to have been his son. I miss him every day.
Chapter One
Early Summer, 1941
Big Dave pulled the old GMC ¾ ton pickup truck to the side of the two track he had been driving on for the past hour. He shut off the engine and turned to the young man seated next to him.
“This here is where I saw those maverick calves yesterday,” he said. “There’s a small water hole about three miles north of here. I think we got a good chance of catching some of them critters at that waterhole.”
“Sounds good to me,” responded his passenger, Rupert Sanders. Rupert was shorter than Big Dave, and he was skinny as a rail. Big Dave stood six foot four inches tall and weighed about two hundred and twenty-five pounds of pure muscle. He had huge hands for a young man, only eighteen years old. Both men had just graduated from high school and were working all the angles they could find to make and save enough money to give each of them a start in the livestock business.
Rupert hated his first name and had been known as Rocky since he was in the first grade. He had managed to beat up every boy in school who had made fun of his real first name until one day in the seventh grade when he found himself outnumbered and getting pummeled after school out in the parking lot.
As Rocky lay on his back in the gravel lot trying to use his hands to defend himself from the four boys pounding on him, he felt a sudden shadow fall across him that seemed to obliterate the bright sunshine he had felt on his face. By some magical force, the boys on top of him seemed to rise in the air and disappear until suddenly he was no longer encumbered by the bodies and arms and legs of his four attac kers.
Rocky looked up and saw the source of the shadow that had blotted out the sun and then managed to toss the four boys aside like four small bales of hay. What Rocky saw was the face and body of a young Viking giant. He quickly recognized his Viking rescuer as none other than David Carlson, known in school as “Big Dave.”
Big Dave extended a huge hand, and Rocky quickly grasped it with his own. Big Dave pulled Rocky to his feet. Rocky proceeded to dust himself off and then looked straight at Big Dave with a puzzled face.
“Why’d you do it?” Rocky a sked.
“Do what?” asked Big Dave.
“Help me with those four assholes,” responded R ocky.
“I was watching you with them rascals and you was doin’ pretty fair for a skinny little runt, but then I saw one of them Barlow boys pull out a pair of brass knuckles and I just couldn’t abide that happenin’,” said Big Dave.
With that said, Big Dave put his arm around Rocky’s shoulders. “Let’s get you over to the restroom and get you cleaned up,” he said.
From that day forward, Rocky and Big Dave were almost inseparable as best fri ends.
Rocky got out of the truck and walked back to the two-horse trailer hitched to the back of the old GMC pickup truck. Big Dave joined him there and unlocked the latch on the back of the horse trailer and swung the trailer gate to the side.
Rocky moved to the front of the trailer and grabbed the lead rope on one of the two horses and moved the rope along the side slats of the trailer, forcing the horse to back out and onto the ground. Rocky then held the mare still, while Big Dave grabbed the saddle blanket, saddle, and bridle out of the back of the pickup. He placed the bridle on the mare’s head, slapped a blanket on the horse’s back, added the saddle and connected and tightened the cinch. He put his knee on the mare’s side to push the air out, so the saddle would fit tightly and finished tightening the cinch strap.
Once finished, Rocky tied off the mare to the side of the horse trailer and he repeated the process with the gelding in the trailer. When they were finished, both men mounted their horses and set off at a lope toward the water hole Big Dave had mentioned.
As they rode toward the water hole, Big Dave studied the sky and his surroundings. The day was warm and there were few clouds to block the sun’s rays. There was a slight breeze, but it came and went. It was a warm day for early summer and both men wore jeans, long sleeved denim shirts, cowboy hats, boots, and leather gloves.
Big Dave had exceptionally good eyesight, and he had learned at a young age to use his strong eyesight to his advantage. He was always scanning his surroundings, looking for what didn’t belong. It had served him well in hunting wild animals for meat, and it had worked well in spotting maverick calves in the brush covered landscape of western Wyoming.
As they neared the location of the water hole, Big Dave held up a hand to signal a halt and both men sat on their now still horses, side by side.
“I’ll take a look see and be right back,” said Big Dave.
He dismounted an