Guardian Angels have had a leading role in my life. \u00a0They have been both corporeal and spiritual. \u00a0One of them was Idaho.\u00a0 He was older than my Dad; not old enough to be my Grandpa.\u00a0 He was a Basque, a pillar of our community, a Grocer; and most of all my friend.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When I was very small, Idaho worked in a local independent grocery.\u00a0 By the time I was about 8, he had his own neighborhood grocery store at the corner of Main and Spring streets.\u00a0 I was just a kid, one of many he knew, but he always had a kind word.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One summer evening we were playing hide and go seek in the dark.\u00a0 As the game evolved we ended up playing in the lot behind Idaho\u2019s store.\u00a0 There was a lot of stuff around that made for good hiding places.\u00a0 There was also some old machinery from the Coca Cola bottling plant next door.\u00a0 Suddenly there was a Police car with a spotlight on us.\u00a0 We were summoned out of hiding to explain our presence.\u00a0 It began to look like we were in trouble; until Idaho appeared.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He vouched for us. \u00a0 We were neighborhood kids that played around his store; we were harmless.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Not long after that I was involved in a hostile relationship with a \u2018college kid\u2019 who lived nearby.\u00a0 He and his buddy were the prime suspects in the death of our cat, Tagger.\u00a0 Needless to say I took every opportunity to make life miserable for the SOB.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One day the older kid happened to be riding his bicycle past our house. \u00a0 He launched an insult or two in my direction.\u00a0 The fates were smiling; I had a decent, loaded slingshot in hand.\u00a0 I hit him in the jaw and knocked him off the bicycle.\u00a0 I had a few choice words for him as well.\u00a0 My shot had been more of a reflex than an overt act.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I was in big trouble.\u00a0 He was at least 10 years older than me and I had no backup.\u00a0 I ran across the street, through the neighbors yard, hoping someone was home.\u00a0 No luck.\u00a0 I turned and ran up the alley at full speed.\u00a0 I had about a 300 foot lead but he was closing fast.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ahead on my left a garage door was opening, it was Idaho\u2019s.\u00a0 I ran inside, slammed the door shut and shot the bolt closed.\u00a0 Idaho stood there stunned, his wife and mother in-law sat in the car staring at me.\u00a0 Before anyone could speak there came a loud pounding on the door.\u00a0 The enemy called me every name in the book and described in vivid detail how he was going to dismember my lifeless body.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Idaho\u2019s eyes got big and he asked what was going on?\u00a0 I told him that the SOB had killed my cat and I just nailed him with a slingshot.\u00a0 Idaho smiled and told me to stay in the garage.\u00a0 He went out and spoke to the guy for a long time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After an eternity, Idaho summoned me outside.\u00a0 He made us face each other and shake hands.\u00a0 He declared that the war was over.\u00a0 He announced, in no uncertain terms, that if one of us violated the truce there would be hell to pay.\u00a0 We believed him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He sent the big guy home to get his jaw patched up.\u00a0 He took me into the garage and inspected my slingshot.\u00a0 He could not believe it had done so much damage… until I showed him a handful of marbles.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I ran into the cat assassin a couple of more times.\u00a0 He never spoke to me or made a hostile overture.\u00a0 I returned the courtesy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Idaho was another story.\u00a0 He always mentioned the incident whenever he saw me.\u00a0 Sometimes he told the story and laughed until tears came to his eyes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I never doubted he saved my life that day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guardian Angels have had a leading role in my life. \u00a0They have been both corporeal and spiritual. \u00a0One of them was Idaho.\u00a0 He was older than my Dad; not old enough to be my Grandpa.\u00a0 He was a Basque, a pillar of our community, a Grocer; and most of all my friend. When I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}