Independence is my Middle Name

been breaking loose since birth . . .

San Antonio Lake, as seen from near my childhood home . . . photo from author’s archives.

Back in July of 1956, dad had been working for months without a day off. He earned mere dollars a day in a foundry, paid piecemeal for however many steel doohickeys he shoved into a blazing forge, facing a fierce blast each time.

July fourth was coming up . . . Independence Day . . . his first…