The Soda Bottle Kid

Tuesday was a hot July day, the sun beat the sweat out of the boys
as they searched for bottles. Rodney had hooked up with Travis
that morning. in hopes of finding the mother lode of bottles in some
out of the way place.
  Then Rodney remembered the old man who had said he could
work for the bottles. "Let's check it out," Rodney said.
  They rode up to the acreage on the outside edge of town.
Rodney knocked on the door the way he had before. No answer,
They were just about to go when a chronic cough said, " Who the hell is it?"
Pat Dooley swung the screen door wide, " What you want?"
  Rodney turned ," You remember me sir?" I came to collect soda bottles.
Dooley swung his cane towards the shed, "You can have all the bottles in that shed,
If you paint it." The paint and turpentine's in there too. Come back Saturday."
Travis looked in the shed "Must be 50 cases of Squirt in there."
  "Ok, hey what's your name mister?" "Patrick Dooley," The old man said.
" Saturday at 7 am sharp" the door swung back shut with a bang, as quickly as it opened.
  The boys looked at each other  as if they struck gold. Travis said, " he's kind of kooky."
" Who cares all we got to do is paint his shed it should take a couple of hours
with all of us," Rodney smiled.
  "Let's go to the bait shop and get some grape soda," Travis replied.
   The boys rode to the feed store and looked around the straw bales.
Walt and another old farmer were shootin' the breeze when they spied the
boys and asked what's up? Rodney gave them a quick explaination of the
Boys club and the need for bottles for camp. Walt said," Stop by they could
have all the loose bottles in the machine shed."
  "We got a big job at Pat Dooley's," Rodney beamed, "For alot of bottles"
 " You be careful of Ol' Pat Dooley", Walt warned. " He's a wiley one".
Rodney was too busy looking for, and finding a couple of bottles tucked
under the hay to listen.
 "Let's go Trav I got 2 " " Yeah I got some too", Trav replied.
The boys headed to the bait shop bought 2 grape sodas.
 They chugged them down and added them to the others in their packs and headed to
 Ton and Tanks place.
 Nobody was around so they stashed the bottles in the boat.
  "I'll see you tonight, pick you up about 6:30 to go skating."
  Now some believed that true love might happen upon horseback,
and some believe that your true love appears at the local dance.
But for Rodney, he honestly thought he would meet her on a
"Couples Only in the Moonlight" at Skate Country.
The only time that it was manditory to hold each other
and skate to the disco ball sparkle and some romantic
Rod Stewart tune. 
  On the ride home he thought only of Roxanne and skating endlessly
with her soft V-neck sweater gently cradling her breasts. Rodney's
hands on her small of her back, him skating backwards and her head
on his shoulder. Rod singing "Tonites the night."
  He showered, dabbed musk oil on  and put on his best bell-bottom jeans
 and his Boones Farm Strawberry Hill T shirt. He gobbled down supper
and waited on the front porch for Travis. "Clipper, If I make out tonight,
I'll be the luckiest guy ever," He told his dog. Honk, Honk, Travis' mom pulled up
"See ya" he told his mom and jumped in the car.
As they rode to Skate Country he told Travis they were the luckiest guys in the world.
And they were..............

Authors note: 
At that point in my life I was the luckiest guy in the world.
It was a time of gentle innocence, true love.