Sally Buffalo

Sally Buffalo  (E) Contest Entry for Writer's Cramp June 14, 2018 #2160944 by Chris Breva

701 Words

Prompt: "Write a story 1000 words or less or a poem 40 lines or less about a family starting out on their summer (or winter!) vacation."

I think I will write about my family vacations as a child. The prompt doesn't specify that it has to be any other family. It just says a family. Anyway my family vacations were a particularly special time because it was the one time out of the year when my dad did not get drunk and begin fighting. In fact I do not recall him ever drinking when we were at the lakes. We always went camping at a lake in Ohio called Sally Buffalo. It was actually a series of lakes, which I believe had once been strip mines. I know there were lots of strip mines close by, some of which would go down thousands of feet. These were often converted into lakes and filled with water, which would then be stocked with fish. I remember going to some of those lakes and fishing for carp. My dad would always take our poles if we caught a carp and help us reel the fish in because he was afraid the carp would drag us unto the lakes and we would drown. I remember how special that made me feel because the rest of the year he not only seemed not to care if I died but at times was guilty of trying to kill me. So being at the lakes and actually enjoying his companionship was very special. I loved him when he wasn't drinking and for some reason he never drank at the lakes.

Another reason I liked Sally Buffalo was because of the strip mining operations. We often got to go watch as the world's largest trucks and largest back hoes worked. The back hoes we called shovels and those shovels could move thousands of tons of earth in one scoop! The scoop was so large that it could contain several cars sitting end to end and still have room to spare. I remember the tour guide telling us that the tires on the trucks were so huge that a Cadillac could have stood on its bumper within the rim and still not have touched the rim on either side. One of the trucks passed by as he was talking and he wasn't joking. It was like watching a skyscraper on wheels or so it seemed from my childish perspective. I have seen those trucks since then and while they are indeed huge, I don't believe they are quite that huge.

Sally Buffalo was my time to relax each year and I always looked forward to going there. I remember every detail as if it were yesterday. The food was alwayss spectacular, the fishing was always fun, and the family time was just as it was suppose to be. For that one week or two weeks out of the year our home was a home. The rest of the year it was a war zone. I remember how we all dreaded going home. Dad would always promise that he wasn't going to start drinking again when he got home and sometimes he would keep that promise for awhile. The family would enjoy a modicum of peace but eventually the cares of life would wear him down and he'd go on a bender to beat all benders. I have long since forgiven him and look at my experiences as being gifts because they made me what I am today. I'm a Christian today and I honestly believe that God took all the evil that ever happened to me and used it to give me a unique perspective in dealing with others. I understand the mentality of struggling families as nobody else can because I have been there. I understand addiction as nobody else can because I was also addicted having followed in Dad's footsteps. I have seen it from the family's perspective and the addict'sd point of view. So in dealing with others I have empathy. God knew I would be a chaplain today and he allowed me to suffer knowing that my suffering would prepare me for my position. Kudos Lord!