John Parkes – författare

SynopsisANNIE OF HOUSEBOAT CHINQUAPINLocated on the St Johns River 18 miles inland of Florida's east coast is Jacksonville, a major city, shipping and fishing center in 1935. A main thoroughfare, Riverside Avenue, runs south from the city along the west side of the river. A half mile south of the city, Dora Street, a street of dirt and rubble, connects to Riverside Avenue and runs down a short distance to the river's edge onto a landing. From here, a wooden dock extends out about 150 feet over the water. Six houseboats, three on each side, connect to the dock by walkways. In one, named Houseboat Chinquapin, there lives a young woman named Annie. She lives here with her son, Curtis, daughter, Denise, and husband, Robert. Annie now is 26 years old. Robert, much older, is 43, and Curtis and Denise, respectively are 9 and 7. Curtis, as boys are, is a problem, but Denise, as girls are, is sweet and nice. Robert's job is with the railroad, in the shop, where he works hard, long hours and comes home tired and spent at the end of each day. Annie is a dutiful wife and mother. Her family is her life. But Annie, young, comely, shapely and buxom, yearns yet for some spark in life. The Depression is on. Times are tough. Money is tight and the family budget, a constant squabble. The houseboat has no electricity. Kerosene lamps provide light. Cooking is by a wood-burning stove. Perishables are kept in an icebox. Clothes are washed by scrub-board and tub. The big box radio plays by battery. Annie, instilled with passion, wants to venture out, go to church, see movies, eat dinner out, be wooed, be wined, and be bedded. But Robert, aging and tired, at the end of the day wants only to eat dinner, read the paper, then at night pour himself a jigger of whiskey, listens to the radio, doze, then go to bed, while Annie in her nightie subtly nudges, snuggles, entices, tries to engage, arouse him, but in all is left emotionally and physically unsatisfied. So, for Annie, being young, to be wooed, to be satisfied emotionally, intimately is not to be. Houseboat life and living on the dock is basic. Annie's houseboat, although it once floated on a barge, now sets on pilings over the water and by its walkway to the dock one goes from the river onto the landing to Dora Street. Annie's houseboat is small and simple. It is exactly the same as the other five, replicated three on each side of the dock, as noted. All are tenant houseboats and have names. Annie's neighbor, Mary Lou, lives across the dock in Houseboat Ivy. Life on the St Johns River has its advantages. Swimming is good, as is fishing, crabbing, shrimping, and scavenging driftwood along the shore. Occasionally one snares floating in the river a stalk of bananas, it being lost overboard from a banana boat. There also are the dreaded hurricanes. Annie had a longtime iceman. He was good, dependable, and delivered her ice daily, but he got old and slow, so the ice company replaced him by a younger iceman, who was good looking, muscular, and drawn to Annie. He made advances on her, but she rebuffed his advances repeatedly. Then one time, in a moment of weakness, at his persistence, she succumbs, has sex with him, and becomes pregnant. Now Annie is a family woman, vested in her family, so she tries to abort the pregnancy, initially by jarring her stomach, jumping off a chair and landing stiff-legged to the floor. This didn't work, so she swallows a whole bottle of laxative pills to rumble her insides. This didn't work, so she petitions her family doctor to give her an abortion. He wouldn't because abortions are illegal. She is desperate and then tries in wily seductive manners to entice her husband to have sex with her. He does not. The iceman who made her pregnant leaves town to nowhere known. Annie's husband then discovers she is pregnant, and knowing it is not his, within his right, presents his case to the divorce court, and divorces Annie.

In this timely book, John Parkes demystifies the brewing process and explains in easy-to-follow terms how anyone can produce delicious beer with the help of just some basic equipment and a few key skills. Those new to home brewing will love the easy-to-follow instructions and the detailed explanations of the brewing process and anyone already adept at home brewing will be delighted by the original recipes. Made without unnecessary chemicals and additives, the beers featured here will appeal to anyone seeking a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

What could be better than enjoying a glass of delicious home-brewed organic beer? This book includes everything you'll need to know to brew a variety of beers at home, from the equipment and techniques needed to a few inside secrets from a professional brewer. In this timely book, John Parkes demystifies the brewing process and explains in easy-to-follow terms how anyone can produce delicious beer with the help of just some basic equipment and a few key skills. Those new to home brewing will love the easy-to-follow instructions and the detailed explanations of the brewing process and anyone already adept at home brewing will be delighted by the original recipes. Made without unnecessary chemicals and additives, the beers featured here will appeal to anyone seeking a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

The Old Hobo and Other Short StoriesTHE OLD HOBO: It is mid-1900 when a battered old hobo trudges up along a California Highway and stops to rest at a roadside rest stop. He sees, liking to himself, a weathered old oak tree barely surviving within the rocks on the mountainside opposite the roadside rest stop. He is taken back when a young boy at the roadside rest wants to carve his initials in the tree with his pocketknife. It is stopped when his parents intercede. The old hobo bids a farewell to the tree and trudges on. THE SUN WILL SHINE: In the mid-1900s in a state mental hospital, a patient looks to a liking to himself by playing a solitaire marble game. THE GOLD MINE: A city slicker stops in for a beer in the bar of a derelict old gold mining town. While there, he encounters an old- timer viewing his gold samples and his dreams of developing a lost, secret gold mine. The city slicker facetiously plays the old timer along. So, is the gold mine real or in the old-timer's imagination? THE TENEMENT FLAT: In the mid-1900s a factory worker at the end of his workday comes home to his tenement flat only to meet and confront his wife over the fact that the last of their eight children, a daughter, has ran away with a sailor. An intense argument arises, family dynamics are unleased, the raising of their children, she being a boring, cold wife, his infidelity and his no-nothing job. With his pistol that she has taken, she confronts him, to finish him, to end it all. However, so, the tables are turned when, she being distracted, he gets the pistol, shoots her, and walks out. HE WAS NOT ONE OF US: The flimsy shack with its earthed floor shakes and sways incessantly from the raging, howling snowstorm outside, as the men, but for one, huddle around a heated potbellied stove under a swaying lantern telling their tales and yarns. They laugh, they joke, and they chuckle to keep their minds off the freezing cold. The one lies on the floor, his back against the wall, wrapped in a sleeping bag reading a book, when a blast of snow and cold air blows in, as the door opens, and a young stranger enters, shaking from the cold. Quietly he steps in, seats himself on the floor, and removes his frozen boots. He warms himself, then joins the group at the stove, joining on the laughter - but so, "e;you're not one of us,"e; says one, "e;you've got to leave,"e; says another. He puts on his boots. The cold air and snow blows in as he leaves. COUNTER ENCOUNTER AT THE MEAT COUNTER: The youngster steals watermelons from the man's watermelon patch and the youngster is confronted the next day at the meat counter by the man with the accusation the he, the youngster is a hoodlum, a ne'er-do-well, and future criminal to their community. So stated, but in time the youngster has to go to war, to be engaged in fierce heated military operations in South Korea. In it all, the youngster, survives, and in years returns home, marries the fairest of the young ladies in the community and moves into the house next to the man's. Another encounter at the meat counter, the aging man now is thoughtful, with reconciliation, resulting in an invitation, the wives to make fudge, and yes from the watermelon patch to have a watermelon. THE WEEKEND GUEST: the boy soldier knocks on the door and is warmly welcomed in by the man of the house for he has been invited in for the weekend by the late teenage young lady of the house. She is not the daughter of the family but the daughter to the sister of the man's wife who because of drugs has given her over to the family to be cared for. However, she is flirtatious to all of the boys in the area and the man is afraid she will become pregnant and bring shame on the family. So, marriage to the boy soldier is the ideal. The weekend visit is extremely pleasant. The young lady invites the boy soldier to bed with her. Out the door he goes. A DRIVER'S SECURITY: In the mid-1900s in a cold, dark night, t