Picture a critter of some kind - probably a racoon - that you might meet along the road. Put that critter on a birthday card, and imagine it as you read along.
This is from another of those yellowed pieces of paper found in an old file on which I scribbled the text before copying it onto the card. I'm throwing the paper away, but I have to keep the story.
Well, you meet the strangest critters on the road. We ran into this one somewhere on the other side of the hill, west of Shawano and east of the muddy Missouri, so we stopped and partied with him for awhile and asked him what he was doing out there.
He said he was looking for a good time. We said he looked like he'd found it. He said, yeah, it was a great life, but he could use some good company. We said we knew what he meant.
Life on the road is great, but when we want to settle down with some good people for a change, we head for Green Bay, Wisconsin. He said he'd keep it in mind.
So he gave us some magic beans from his private stash and I clicked a picture of him with my eyes and he rode off into the sunset. Steve and I looked at each other. "Who was that masked man, anyway?" we asked. We didn't know, so we ate all the magic beans.
"Hmmmm," we said, after a while. Always wondered what Owsley was doing with himself. So we turned around and headed home to the good people with good news. Better times are on the way.
The magic beans contained all we ever learned of love, truth, joy and beauty. We can't give you all that. But we can wish them on you. And we do.Happy Birthday!