Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

This is the account of the family line of Esau (that is, Edom).
Esau took his wives from the women of Canaan: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite—also Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.

• Genesis 36:1-3

One man from each tribe, each of them the head of his family, is to help you.

• Numbers 1:4

Then Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun and to the family heads of the Israelite tribes.

• Numbers 32:28

On the day that I wrote this, a cousin who was three months younger than I was passed away, actually the day before.  He and I were the only two in my same grade in school.  My mother had one sister.  Each sister had girl, boy, boy, but he was the oldest boy on his side while I was the youngest on my side.  Growing up, mostly on a farm, I rarely had neighbors to play with, but two weeks in the summer or a week at Christmas or both, we were inseparable.  He had an older sister by one year and we made a great trio on a variety of adventures.  When the two of us boys were ten-years-old, the trio walked about five miles down an asphalt road to find the first house with a telephone.  I called my Dad and he rescued us.  We are at a new state park and my aunt’s car wouldn’t crank.  No fixing involved.  She had flooded it out.  That pretty much ended our adventures on that trip with blisters from molten asphalt sticking to our feet.

And even when it was all five of us cousins around the pond with bamboo fishing poles, a little line, a cork, and a hook, maybe a little bacon, we could catch 30-40 fish, none bigger than the palms of our little hands, but we got good at removing the hook and let the fish swim for it before we put the hook back in the water.  Like the old song says, “They never learn!”  Even my cousin’s younger brother was catching the fish without even putting bait on the hook.

I remember the time that the boy scout requirements to make eagle were about to change.  If I could not get Lifesaving merit badge by the end of the summer, I would probably have been delayed in getting my eagle by another year.  My cousin and a friend with a pool, both eagle scouts already, tried to drown me, but I passed all the requirements.  It was duly signed off by my uncle, their scoutmaster.  When he asked me if I really had done all the requirements, I said, “Can’t you see that the pool is about two inches lower than it was when we got here?  I drank that much of it!”

It was this cousin who said that he had a surfboard expert working on his board, and his friend would loan me a board.  He did not charge me since my cousin had just paid good money for his resurfacing.  This was at Cocoa Beach, Florida.  His friend worked out of a garage style store front.  If you have seen the T-shirts, hats, bumper stickers, etc. nearly everywhere these days.  My cousin’s friend was the real Ron Jon, before he upgraded his shop.  I stood up on the board one time, but then I saw a head pop out of the water right in front of me.  I baled out rather than hit the child.  But as my cousin said, most that try never get on their feet.

And there is nothing like listening to the rock ‘n roll of the late 60s while burning strobe candles.  Odd, I never listened to that music except when I visited him.

And once in college, I picked him up and we went to Florida Bay in the Everglades to see migrating birds after Christmas.  I saw one Scarlet Ibis from a long way off, but we saw a swarm of mosquitoes that blotted out the early morning sun as if it was a thundercloud.  We barely made it back into the tent, and our bacon was ruined when the swarm had passed.  I am just glad he knew what it was or they would have eaten us alive.

On my Dad’s side of the family, he had three brothers.  There were four cousins older than I was, and there were three younger.  Two of the older ones on that side of the family have passed and I have no way of contacting the other two.  I lost contact with the girl who was a year younger.  And the two that live in the Seattle area are the last ones on that side of the family that I have seen, when I moved from there 28 years ago.

When we think back to how close we were back then, it is amazing to see how the years have separated us since then.

But I choose to remember those good ol’ days, our innocent years, when life seemed so simple.

My sister’s husband asked me when I called to see if they had heard…  He asked, “Does it make you feel old?”

Yes, it does.  But the memories make me feel young, even if just for a moment.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.