The Winnah!

"The win-n-n-ah and still champeen!"  Those words echo from my childhood.  My dad and uncles (my dad was one of eleven children) circled their chairs in front of the big console radio to listen to championship boxing matches.  Those were the days when the big-name fighters were Sugar Ray Robinson, Jake LaMotta, and Rocky Graziano, and the sport was dominated by Joe Louis.  My mother and aunts would be around the dining room table, playing cards or a Texas domino game called "42."  The card players were serious, but the men were talking and shouting.  I stuck with the guys and listened to the fight announcers.

And what does that have to do with the farm?  When I went in to clean the big sleeping room in the barn and found the squirrel hole that I have been packing and repacking, stuffing and refilling day after day for weeks was untouched, I did a little Happy Dance and declared myself The Winnah!!  Yes!  Hey, my opportunities for victory are few and far between and their scope is small, so I'll take 'em when and where I find 'em.

It was a good day.