Maggie's Farm

my dad was shot down over germany during WWII and spent a year and a half in Stalag Luft 1, in Barth on the NorthSea. Next to the camp was a Luftwaffe anti-aircraft gunnery school. When the Red Army got withing a few days' march of the area, the Germans departed, and for a few days the POWs roamed thru the AAA school (a lot of the students at the time were young ladies so i guess the boys were smelling the perfume and aiming for a contact high).

Anyway, dad brought back a bag of swastika emblems, eagles and belt buckles, and so forth, all of which disappeared over the years --but the centerpiece was a mint-condition Luger.

I was just a tyke but really looked forward to shooting the thing when i got old enough.

Then one summer afternoon on Lula Avenue in Baton Rouge, i watched my dad and our neighbor Mr. Knight perform their Saturday ritual --that is, mowing the yards while consuming mass quantities of Schlitz.

While dad always mowed our yard with an old Sears reel mower, Mr. Knight had gone and made dad covet his power mower. He would cut his same-sized yard in half the time and sweat --with what was likely a 2HP Briggs & Stratton rig.

On this bad day, and to my silent screaming horror, i watched dad up and trade off that Luger to thiso-and-so neighbor, for that lousy lawnmower. Haven't gotten over it to this day.