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It was 1980 and our family had just moved to Fort Worth, Texas from Manassas, Virginia. Nobody was thrilled about the move, however my father was determined to make the best of the situation.
Going from Virginia to Texas was a very traumatic experience by itself. I had lived in Manassas all my life and although I had traveled extensively, I could always count on returning home to my Virginia.
I was just 19 when we moved to Texas. There was much I did not like about Texas when we first moved, but one of the biggest hates were the sticky burrs.
Sticky burrs live in the grass and make it all but impossible to walk barefoot in any field, lawn, or park. Our little dog, Corky was not thrilled about these evil burrs as she was constantly tormented by their little thorns as she attempted to walk in our yard.
The house we bought in Texas was a nice house with a rather large yard, actually by today's standards, it was huge. Measuring over 300 feet long and nearly 100 feet wide in some places. Total area was just under half an acre. This is only a rough estimate, but my guess is there were probably a billion sticky burrs in this yard. Give or take two or three.
We all hated the sticky burrs, but at that time in my life I did not feel there was anything that could be done about them except to live with them. My father had other ideas. He was going to pick every single sticky burr from the entire yard. A billion sticky burrs, this ought to be good.
After the move and we all got settled, I took a part-time job and enrolled in junior college. My father as he had always done worked full time for American Airlines. At this time in my life, I was not very happy with my father. He had always been a great father, however when one is 19, and knows everything, authority figures like my father just got in the way.
I never once bought into his theory that he could rid the yard of all the sticky burrs, so I never helped him pick them. I remember coming home and seeing my father in the yard with his little bucket and his digging tool. He never forced the issue with me about helping him, and I never felt bad for not offering my help.
I don
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