The Tug's Out of the Bag!

As I mentioned in THIS post, my nickname, Tug, was bestowed on me courtesy of my older cousin Danny. I often wondered if he would ever catch wind of my little blog, and well, thanks to a mutual friend of ours, the Tug's out of the bag!

I was actually pleased to receive an email from Danny this morning. I haven't talked to him in years. The last time I saw him was 5-years ago at my sister, Pam's, funeral. I have often thought about calling him up just to see how he is doing, but like most good intentions, I never followed through with it.

Danny mentioned that he felt bad after reading some of my posts. He wanted to apologize for some of his actions. I hated that it bothered him so much. I have never held any ill-will toward him over anything from our childhood. I like to inject a little humour into my posts, and I guess it comes at his expense. Danny was just being an all-American boy. He didn't treat me any different than I treated my little brother, or anybody else treats their cousins or siblings. I credit him for my toughness, and count those bumps, scrapes, and bruises as character notches in my belt of life.

I could probably fill up an entire notebook full of all of the things I learned from Danny. He introduced me to many new things in my life, for example: the joys of collecting Iron Ore, the pleasures of tasting ripe mulberries from the tree, the difference between Blackberries and Boysenberries, the proper way to fix a hamburger, how to ride a wheelie, how to spit properly, how to play a game of H.O.R.S.E., how to make a baseball go where you want by standing a certain way, numerous wrestling holds, how to ride a mini-bike, how to swing on a vine across the creek...gosh, I never realized just exactly how much I learned from him.

He mentioned how we used to ride bikes and explore, it brought back a lot of memories for me. I should post some of the good and fun stuff we did together instead of always writing about the "bad." I've emailed him back explaining all of this, hopefully he'll understand and not continue to feel bad. (Danny, if you are reading this and have not received my reply, please check your SPAM box, for some reason a lot of my emails end up there)

Oh, and as for our mutual friend, W.C.W., you can expect a post about you coming up in the near future! ;)