posted on Nov, 23 2007 @ 10:23 PM
A far as picking up pieces of other threads, I only found this site two weeks ago and I haven’t had time to find any along the same lines. Besides,
what do I have to gain from embellishing? If it were a writing contest, I would certainly lose.
As far as Gary the Indian’s story, I guaranty you that none of the threads are quite like his. When my bar was still open in 1998, we were open
during the day mainly to accept deliveries. We had very few customers and the place was quiet save a few alcholics. The joint was popular with Viet
Nam vets and I loved hearing the war stories. I would happily buy a man a drink to hear him talk.
By his own admission Gary was a broken down drunk. He had served two tours in Viet Nam and said Agent Orange had ruined him. His primary goal in life
was to get 100% disability from the government and that was it. He had been trying for 15 years. When he got drafted, he decided to become a corpsman
because he didn't want to fight. Gary carried a file when he went to the V.A. in which he had three letters, two signed by colonels speaking about
uncommon valor under fire. I read them and they almost sounded like movie scripts. He said he didn't remember doing any of the things in the letters,
that he basically blacked out during the fights.
Eventually, he got his disability and decided to explore his native American roots. He was ethnically Indian but was adopted by white parents at
birth. He heard about some multi-tribe Indian conference in New Mexico and took off on the Greyhound out to New Mexico. At the end of the bus line, he
started hitch hiking when he was picked up by a young Indian. Before Gary could tell him where he was going, the young man said he had been sent there
to pick Gary up.
When he got there, he was surrounded by "shaman and elders" who said he was the only warrior out of seven who ever returned. Gary kept saying
you've got the wrong guy, "I'm Gary the drunk fro Hyattsvilled Maryland. They said that when the white man first set foot on America, seven
warriors were sent to live amongst the white man to learn his ways so that would be better prepared when the Indians retook the stewardship of North
America.
When he told me all of that, I could not help but thinking he was full of crap and just trying to get a couple beers out of me. He was the kind of guy
who pulled loose change and lint from his pocket trying to scraped up enough to buy a Pabst. I'd known him so long, I gave him the benefit of the
doubt.
A couple of weeks later, he went back out West. This time, when he returned, he was accompanied by three enormous Indian body guards wearing Rolexes.
I could not believe it neither could some of the other regulars. A couple of them bought top shelf liquor but Gary said he had been trying to quit
drinking and had a Coke.
It got stranger yet. Gary was eating breakfast one day when he looked out the window and saw a shaman, The president of the World Bank, Mr. Wolfensohn
and "some guy from he White House" in his back yard. When he went out, he was told to choose a branch from a large tree. It was cut down. The shaman
said from that time forward, the staff would contain all of the souls of all Mayans, living, dead and those to be born. again. At that point I was
certain Gary had lost his mind. However, a few weeks later, there was some Indian march down Pennsylvania Ave in DC and there was Gary, right up front
carrying a large branch. It was shortly thereafter in May of 1998 when Gary told me to "get right with God." And it was roughly the same time John
Clark told the Martian story.
I’ve been sitting on these stories for almost ten years, they are by far the weirdest things that anybody has ever said to me but now, I swear to
God, I really think something is going to happen. I can't explain it. It worries me to the point where I think I spend a little too much time
thinking about it. Its a mixed curse; on the one hand, it is easier being ignorant.