Will Hawkins

My interest in History has been developed late in life. I started writing stories for GA and in order make them interesting had to set them in a proper historical milieu. That required research on my part and that research developed into an interest in the mistakes of the past made by my country. The Trail of Tears, Manifest Destiny, incarceration of American Citizens in times of war. All were a result of my research into American (and European) history. And to my shame, we have done the same things time and time again (and are still doing them). Trump closing the southern border to immigration is just the latest example. "He who does not study history is doomed to repeat its mistekes." misquotation from George Santayana.

The history of the government of the US and its treatement of the First Nations people and the Trail of Tears is a sad and embarassing one. We did much the same thing with the American born Japanese at the beginning of the Second World War, sending them to 'Relocation Centers' (Concentration Camps in all but name) in that case it was a matter of fear. We were afraid that they would rise up and join forces with their ancestors from the homeland. The same thing, to a lesser degree, was done with American Citizens of German and Itakian ancesstory on the East Coast. And do not get me started on Hawaii becoming a state – those actions were tantamount to a Declaration of War. Mr Will

The physics of a heavy rainstorm are sneaking into this story! Hail is a product of strong updrafts raising raindrops up into the cold of high altitude where they freeze, then begin to fall. As they fall through the warmer atmosphere layer below, they accumulate another layer of water on the outside and get blown up into cold stratosphere again where this new layer freezes on the outside. This rise and fall of raindrops and freezing, repeats again and again until the iceball gets too heavy to be blown upward again and falls to earth as the iceball we call hail. Obviously, in a very strong updraft these iceballs could become quite large and when, eventually, they fall, can do damage to crops and even structures on the ground beneath. Mr Will

Ehet were Swiss. But the language they poke as German. Switzerland is a strande country, depending on where you are in that little country, you may speak German, Italian, ir French.

"He laid down and threw his arm over his eyes." Not unless he was a chicken Should be: He lay down…. Laid means he dropped an egg. Mr Will

TCH; TCH: Carlos, 'moment and comment, are not rhymes! The double m in comment pit you off. Excelent start for a lycan story, however… a 5'2" werewolf is a bit of a change from, as you say, the 2 meter usual types. I'm looking forward to the reading- Mr Will.

Everybody knows Frick and Frack were a comedy ice-scating duo in the 40's. But three points if you know their nationality! No fair googling! Mr Will

I love the word 'jimjams' very cute! Pushing a guy off a scaffold might be 'assault with intent to do bodily harm' which I believe is second degree, but intent to kill would be a very stiff punishment if found guilty, so 'attempted murder' is a bit harsh as a charge and very hard to proove in a court, unless the scaffold is five hundred feet in the air. Better to stick with something you can proove for sure. Though I am in no way a prosecuting attorney. Mister Will

I try to remember to increase the size of the font when I reply or comment on a story – that is for MY benefit as these old eyes are more comfortable with larger type. My comment on Bft's comment: It is a common trope that something or somebody is the cause for turning a person gay. That is BS! Whom a person falls in love with is a result of their genetic makeup – you cannot turn a person gay any more than you can turn a gay person straight. Those people, especially those religious nuts who claim they can turn a gay person straight, merely destroy a gay person's personality and end up with a mentally sick dishrag on their hands. Okay, end of rant! Mister Will

I have no objection to rditing, but I just don't lnow how to do it. Time is not too much of a problem as I spend/waste a lot of time reading and just staring off into space, but I am an absolute klutz as far as doing anything out of the ordinary on my laptop. And sending me a series of instructions is like fahrting upwind, Yes, I know a great deal about the ins and outs of the English language, after all I have had lots of practice with ESL students, but telling an author 'you can't do it that way' is just a liittle beyond me. Thanks for the invitation however. Mister Will lut

I wish Ihad this information when I first read the story – it makes relationships so much more clear.

Unless my memory is failing me (a strong possibility at my age), recent discoveries have been announced about AIDs. Some clinics have announced very preliminary findings that the COVID-19 vaccine has a side effect of protection against the progress of the AIDs symptoms. Nobody is willing to shout CURE as yet, but it appears that the vaccinization for COVID-19 has some effect against AIDs as well.

I did not realize the "the author was no longer around". That being the case, I will cease making suggestions about things I read in this story.

Okay, the old troll who lives under the bridge that authors walking barefoot have to cross on the way to publication is sticking his nose into this story. There at least three, and perhaps more, places in this chapter (I didn't really count them) where different characters have used the wrong case of pronoun in their statements. Some of that may be because they are youngsters and have not become used to using proper English in conversation as yet, but the author has made this error in his descriptive material also. You should be careful about using Nominative case pronouns rather than Objective case pronouns, Example: 'the call was for John and I ' in which 'I' is in the Nominitive case, rather then the correct: "the call was for John and me". If, as the author, you are unsure as to which case of pronoun to use, just leave the other person out of the staterment, then it becomes more obvious. "the call was for I " is of course the incorrect pronoun to use as the pronoun should be in the Objective case: "the call was for me"

It doesn't take long to die. Its the act of living that takes so long.

Milking goats requires a special stand. Aframe to hold the head and neck over the feed box and anothe part to hold the back hips steady. Goat milk makes excellent cheese however, I will have to give your request some (not much) cosideration.

Un fortunately in my present living locaton there are no cows available, now we do have goats and two of our nannies have kids, but my experience with milking does not include goats, sorry to dissappoint my fans.

'Supposed'

I remember many fun times and events with SMC (we purposly avoided the G in the name as we had about 5 or 6 'straight' members, too). Just as an example, when we visited New Zealand we were invited to visit what is called a 'show farm'. As a part of the entertainment the demonstrator invited any of the audience to come down front and milk the cow. Well, I had lived on a farm and volunteered to demonstrate. I washed my hands in hot water (mainly so that the cow would not be subjected to cold hands), knelt at the proper location and put a couple of shots of milk into the bucket. Two results: Chorus members were amazed that their RM knew which end of a cow the milk came from AND how to get it out. Resulted in much applause. Also tipped the teat and gave a good solid squirt right in the mouth of a nearby spectator cat. Made an immediate friend and she followed me around for the rest of the day – finally had to pick her up and hand her off to a nearby Ozzie or she would have followed me all the way to our next stop in Sidney, Australia. Mister Will

Gay men are supposd to go 'commando'. I know that even at my advanced age I do. But then I have an in.house laundry service. my BF's boyfriend takes care of the old man too: cooks and cleans too. Mister Will

I.I, too,was a member of a chorus in a non-singing position, (Rehearsal Manager for both Seattle Mens and Seattle Women's Choruses). Enjoyed the gay contacts, but no job oriented sex – squeaky clean. Traveled with them over much of the USA and as far as Australia/New Zealand. Saw many parts of the world I would have otherwise missed. Mister Will

True, but in a gay story can't 'riding bitch' mean the the person riding on the back is a boyfriend? Mister Will

Hey, I mis-spelled the local name of the moto used in Brazil, it is properly spelled cinquentinha, the translation of 'little fifty' is correct however. Portuguese is an easy language to speak, but their spelling is very European (with lots of silent letters and unusual combinations. It stems from the Latin Vulgate). I had to look the word up to see how to spell it. Mister Will

Side point: inelegant term for riding a motorcycle while hanging on behind the operator is known as 'riding bitch'. this term may not be used in mixed company, but it is quite common among moto riders. Where I am currently living (in Brazil) here are a multitude of places about local towns where young men and their motorcycles wait, usually under a tent and with a telephone nearby, to be contacted by clients seeking a ride after shopping. They negotiate a price depending on the distance to go for the rider to 'ride bitch' on the cinquintina ('little fifty') a small, usually Chinese-made motorcycle. These are popular as no operator's licence is required. The only requirement of the law is that the operator must supply a helmet to his passenger (not too stringently enforced).