Lowell

Lowell

By Mark Leitheiser

These are hard times for a lot of folks. Inflation, disease and interest rates are high while morale, paychecks and trust in our leadership are low. Throw in the growing threat of a world war coupled with government dysfunction and well, life is just plain hard right now.

This isn’t the first time our nation has struggled, of course. World War I, World War II, The Great Depression and the Vietnam War are just a few of the events that tested the mettle of our country, yet today, something feels different from yesterday’s trials. Something is missing. More precisely, someone is missing. What our country needs today is someone to act as an example of how to deal with hard times and show us how to laugh in the face of adversity. What our country needs now is someone like Lowell.

Lowell was my father’s uncle which, I think, makes him my great-uncle. This is appropriate because he really was a great uncle. Dad loved Lowell like a brother as did nearly everyone who ever met him. With black rimmed glasses, slicked back hair and teeth too full and white to be his own, Lowell looked the part of every middle class man who had returned from serving in the military to raise his family in his hometown.

Lowell didn’t have much when it came to material possessions. His house was, to put it charitably, less than impressive. His backyard consisted of railroad tracks for the Burlington Northern trains that rattled his windows every couple of hours and his car was as old and rundown as his house. What Lowell did have, however, was a singular ability to laugh at life’s troubles. To Lowell, life was one big punch line and his laughter never seemed to stop.

An example of Lowell’s irresistible approach to life took place as he was hunting on land whose border ran parallel to land owned by my uncle, who was the exact opposite of Lowell.

Apparently, Lowell was seen stepping over the property line and when he returned the next day, he found a large, wooden sign with a crudely painted message: “Stay off my land you [exit point of the digestive system]”.

Now, most people would have taken offense at such a vulgar message from their own nephew but not Lowell. In fact, he thought it was so funny, he took the sign down and brought it home where he showed it to every visitor. “Hey, have you seen my sign?” he’d ask with a wink and throw back his head and roar with laughter, “Ha-heeeee, ha, ha, ha!”

Hunting, it seemed, gave Lowell enough material for a lifetime of laughter. When he and the boys arrived in South Dakota for a pheasant hunt, they decided to make some supper before bed, which was difficult because they couldn’t find their bread. Finally, a close inspection revealed that Lowell had been sitting on the bread the entire trip across South Dakota, leaving the loaf about an inch thick. “Aaa-heeeee, he, he, he, ha ha,” his laughter rolled across the prairie as the hunters gorged on flat sandwiches.

Perhaps Lowell’s greatest moment took place on a late fall fox hunt with Dad and two friends who looked exactly like four old hunters named Lowell, Clifford, Ed and Jim should look as they prepared to slog across a muddy plowed field in full hunting gear (Think Grumpy Old Men X 2). Lowell never allowed the hunt to begin, however, before pointing across the field and bellowing, “Hark, yond hillock lyeth Reynold. Tallyho boys!” (That is not a misprint).

Things looked fine until the boys suddenly spotted two German Shepherd dogs tearing across the field at them causing the terrified hunters to turn tail and race for Dad’s ‘66 Ford Galaxy waiting patiently by the road. It was quite a race, filled with howls and flying mud coming from both parties but, not surprisingly, the dogs won.

Their first order of business was to knock Cliff and Ed flat on their backs in the mud but the dogs’ mission was hardly complete. With no time to close the back door, Dad and Lowell bailed into the front seat for protection but to no avail. The dogs simply followed their lead and landed between them where they pinned Lowell to the seat with their muddy paws and nearly licked him to death. Turns out, the dogs were as afraid as the hunters and they couldn’t get the dogs out of the car. They all nearly died laughing. To this day, farmers in the area can still hear the faint echo of laughter ringing across their fields, “Ahhhhh-heeeeeee-ha! Down boy, ha, ha haaaaaaa!”

Of course, hunting wasn’t Lowell’s only source of laughter. One day when the boys went to an ice fishing derby, Lowell laid his best rod and reel on the ice only to see them run over and broken to pieces by a passing vehicle. Was he upset? Hardly. He packed the crushed pieces into a box and showed them to every visitor. “Hey, have you seen my fishing rod?” he’d ask with a wink and throw back his head and roar with laughter, “Ha-heeeee, he, he, ha, ha, haaaaaa!”

These are, indeed, hard times for a lot of folks but I hope this humble article has provided you with someone who can show you how to deal with hard times and to laugh in the face of adversity. He may not have had much when it came to material possessions but Lowell certainly knew how to laugh. High rates of interest, inflation and disease? Low morale, paychecks and trust? Our country needs help. Our country needs someone like Lowell.