Transplant: Stories of hardship and triumph

This collection of stories is a love letter to the two states I have called home.
I was born in the Midwest in the far suburbs of Omaha, Nebraska. It was by all metrics a great place to grow up. Most of my days were spent outdoors exploring the rolling hills and cold rocky creeks that surrounded my home. I am grateful that my mother would send me out to play each day ordering me not to return until my clothes were dirty.
I certainly found myself in a lot of trouble whereby I needed to find my own way out. Be it that I found myself tangled up at the bottom of a pond nearly drowned or stuck in a tornado under a bridge, there was always something to discover that the country offered to a young mind and spirit.
Getting myself in trouble also meant putting myself in places and ruffling feathers in a way that orderly adults did not take kindly to. I mean, I was just having fun For the record, I was never caught by the Sherriff on any of his pursuits. No one knew the area like me.
Circumstances led to my family moving to the beautiful state of Arizona. Scottsdale was a small cow town back then. A place where they had only recently stopped running cattle down the main street on the way to market. A place where many men wore cowboy hats and button-down shirts as the fashion of the day. Wearing ties were not expected and often gentleman wore stylish bolo ties or a red kerchief instead with the collar open.
With a small town in the desert only being different in temperature to me, I went out daily and found some trouble. Luckily for me, we were close to the reservation where the Sherriff had no jurisdiction.
Folks were just uptight back then. The younger crowd who believes in taking the easy way out has definitely taken over society. With that, I think that a sense of adventure has been lost on them.
These stories are an homage to these two places in a way that shows the beauty and harshness both provide its people. The common thread between most of these tales is someone who was transplanted from a place of security to a place of unknown outcome. These characters fought for themselves and learned the high importance of self-reliance.