{"id":552,"date":"2008-09-19T18:54:44","date_gmt":"2008-09-19T22:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/?p=552"},"modified":"2008-09-25T21:35:48","modified_gmt":"2008-09-26T01:35:48","slug":"the-rainmaker-sketch-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/?p=552","title":{"rendered":"The Rainmaker (Sketch #10)"},"content":{"rendered":"

photo-2-small.JPG<\/a> <\/p>\n

And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and
\nfound there a well of springing water.<\/p>\n

—Genesis 26:19
\n______________________________________<\/p>\n

His name was Chuck Norman. But he was known to everyone as \u201cFine and Dandy\u201d because that was his automatic response to most questions. He used the phrase to answer anything from how he was to discussing the weather.<\/p>\n

He was the local well driller. Tall, wiry, toothless, he was always dressed in stained olive green coveralls and wore a dented, dirty yellow hard hat, his ever-present cigar-ette dangling from his lips or cradled in a grease-blackened hand. A typical roughneck, a man who made his living drilling great holes into the earth, wrestling with ancient clanking machinery and carbide-tipped bits capable of chewing through solid rock. <\/p>\n

He usually showed up at our farm of an evening, after supper. Dad always walked out and greeted him. \u201cHow are you tonight?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cFine and dandy. Fine and dandy,\u201d he always replied, smiling his toothless grin, lighting another cigarette.<\/p>\n

Dad then walked out to a tree in the yard and broke off a slim Y-shaped branch. Usually he allowed one of us boys to accompany him. We got into Fine and Dandy\u2019s dilapidated old pickup and roared down the gravel road. <\/p>\n

To the place where he was fixing to drill another well. Usually a new building site, but sometimes at an existing residence. Dad got out of the truck holding his little forked tree branch. Palms up, thumbs out, he grasped the ends of the Y shape and stuck the branch straight out in front of him. He then began to walk slowly back and forth across the lot in the general area where Fine and Dandy wanted to dig a well. <\/p>\n

An observer would have witnessed quite the sight, an Amishman in a battered wide-brimmed black wool hat, holding a forked stick, slowly crisscrossing the yard. To the side lounged a dirty chain-smoking roughneck and a ragged little boy in galluses. <\/p>\n

Sooner or later, the branch in Dad\u2019s hands lunged downward, quivering, alive, pulled by an invisible force. Dad carefully marked the spot. Then he walked back and forth crosswise over the spot. Again and again, the branch lunged down, twitching in Dad\u2019s hands. <\/p>\n

Fine and Dandy always stood back, observing and dragging on his cigarette. Some-times Dad found more than one spot that caused the branch to plunge down. He then tested the spots to check which had the strongest pull. <\/p>\n

Finally he stopped, X\u2019ed the spot he\u2019d chosen, and told Fine and Dandy, \u201cThis is where you want to drill.\u201d Fine and Dandy always smiled his toothless smile, handed Dad a crumpled $10 or $20 bill, and took us home again in his dilapidated pickup. If we were lucky, we might stop at a store for an ice cream bar or soda pop on the way home. <\/p>\n

Fine and Dandy always drilled where Dad told him to. Sometimes hundreds of feet down. And he always, always found good wells with abundant supplies of fresh, clear water. He developed quite a reputation as a top notch driller of wells that didn’t run dry.<\/p>\n

He strayed a few times, before he learned. Tried to dig where he figured there would be water, without consulting Dad. Often ending up with dry runs. Shamefacedly then he came and fetched Dad to show him where to dig. And Dad would. Always there was water under the spot he marked.<\/p>\n

Dad was a dowser. Because of him, untold amounts of water flowed onto the earth where none had flowed before. Like rain from the ground instead of the sky. Some would call him evil and brand him a water witch, a label he stridently rejected. If there was water to be found below the ground, he could locate it. Not only that, he could tell you where to drill for the best flow and the clearest water. <\/p>\n

He never failed. Not that I\u2019m aware of. He always found water. Always. If he didn\u2019t, there was none to be found. His record for accuracy was 100%.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know where his \u201cgift\u201d came from and I don\u2019t know why he had it. Or how it worked. It may have been a latent ability, a remnant of ancient practices, buried deep within the psyche of his Swiss-German heritage. His mother was a Lengacher. Probably came from that bloodline. To my knowledge, Waglers not from that lineage are devoid of the gift. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think he ever knew quite what it was or why he possessed it. It was passed on to none of his eleven children. All he knew is that he had the gift, and he could use it. And he did.<\/p>\n

It was what it was. Growing up with dowsing, we thought nothing of it. As children, we played at imitating our father, walking back and forth in the yard with a little forked stick. Since none of us had the actual ability, we made the stick jump down with imper-ceptible movements of our wrists.<\/p>\n

Dowsing has been around for thousands of years. Probably even in biblical times. Maybe Isaac\u2019s servants used it to find water in the desert. How else would they have known where to dig a well? Through the centuries, people dowsed for other things too, such as detecting buried metals. And minerals such as coal. <\/p>\n

In recorded history, dowsing has always had a bit of a shady reputation. People who couldn\u2019t understand it feared it. During the Middle Ages, it was believed to be from the devil. It has never been scientifically proven to work. Most people today view it with suspicion and fear and skepticism.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t. I know it works. Provided the dowser really has the gift. I saw it with my own eyes. Many times. It is real and it does work. <\/p>\n

Today Dad is 86 years old. He still gets around well. I would wager my last penny that the man could still walk over any site with his little forked stick, and locate the purest strongest stream of water available anywhere under the ground. <\/p>\n

dad.JPG<\/a><\/p>\n

He was a man who boldly pursued his dreams, some to failure and some to fruition. An ordinary man with some extraordinary abilities. One of which happened to be dowsing. <\/p>\n

I wonder, is he the last of his kind, or are there others out there like him?<\/p>\n

*****************************************<\/p>\n

We live in interesting times. Times now turning a bit scary. The country and the world are abuzz with all the bad economic news. In this last week, Wall Street reeled from blow after blow as institution after institution hit the dust. Russia\u2019s stock market was shut down after the bottom fell out on Monday.<\/p>\n

That morning, Lehman Bros., a venerable financial institution, collapsed in the largest bankruptcy in history. Lehman was founded in 1850, and survived the Civil War, both World Wars and the Great Depression. Because of its insane investments, it did not survive the current housing bubble collapse.<\/p>\n

The Feds, who bailed out Bear Stearns, and now the insurance giant, AIG, stepped back and let Lehman fall. As they should have for all of them. With Bear Stearns, AIG and Fannie and Freddie, our collective debt ballooned by trillions of dollars. <\/p>\n

The guys I read on the web, William Norman Grigg<\/a> and Gary North<\/a>, among others, predict dark times ahead. They have always tended toward pessimism, but this time I think they are on to something. The collapse of the dollar, I believe, is imminent. <\/p>\n

On the phone with a friend earlier this week, I asked him what he made of the whole mess. He blithely said it would affect only the rich, who had stupidly invested in the companies whose stock is now worthless. I was stunned by his na\u00efve conclusions.<\/p>\n

On the surface, it may mostly affect the rich. Like Lehman\u2019s now suddenly unemployed investment bankers<\/a> and their wives. But what affects them affects us all. Sooner or later. Mostly sooner this time, I think. <\/p>\n

The whole thing will likely shake out by late October. By then, we\u2019ll know how bad it really is. Whether a Depression approaches, or something less. It would be wise to anticipate a Depression and prepare accordingly while there is yet time. At the most basic level, a few extra tins of Spam and a case of bottled water wouldn’t be a bad idea. At a more advanced level, well, there’s always guns and gold.<\/p>\n

In the long run, economies come and go. As do world powers, and empires. As will this country, at some point. Maybe soon.<\/p>\n

Only the Lord endures unchanged forever.<\/p>\n

Phillies fans are waxing delirious at their team\u2019s late spurt toward the playoffs. Back and forth it goes, with the Mets and the Phillies half a game up, half a game down. Should be an interesting finish. Since the Phillies swept my Braves this week, and the Braves now begin a three-game series with the Mets, I\u2019m in the awkward position of cheering for the Mets against my own team. I’d rather see the Mets in the playoffs. Oh, well. As I\u2019ve said before, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.<\/p>\n

In football, I was one for two last weekend. The vile Brady-less Patriots beat my Jets in New York. I wasn\u2019t too surprised. My buddy Favre threw his first interception as a Jet. The Pats are an evil well-oiled machine. I could probably play quarterback for them and win. <\/p>\n

But the Cowboys-Eagles. Whooee, what a game. Pretty much came down to who had the ball last. I went to bed at halftime, convinced the thug Eagles would prevail. They were pretty much moving the ball at will. The next morning I was delighted to see the Cowboys had pulled it out. That made me, ahem, ten dollars richer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. —Genesis 26:19 ______________________________________ His name was Chuck Norman. But he was known to everyone as \u201cFine and Dandy\u201d because that was his automatic response to most questions. He used the phrase to answer anything from how he was to discussing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}