Do you remember your first love? 

Do you remember the anguish and anxiety of trying to impress that very first special someone? 

If you do Mason Bricklin will leave you in stitches!

Mason Bricklin is the first book of a series of family friendly humorous books created for the entire family.

Sixth grader, Mason Bricklin, has met Edna Roe, the girl of his dreams.  He has six weeks to win her heart.  Can he overcome the advances of his worst enemy, Collier, or the gossip of his best friend, Darnell?  Join the fun as Mason's secret plan exposes side-splitting laughter for the whole family.

Reasons to read "Mason Bricklin.

You'll get a  belly laugh.  (Which is much better than a chuckle)
You'll miss Mason's secret plan if you don't. (I hate not knowing)
You'll learn what a "tar nation" is.
You'll learn what Edna did to her little brother. (Shame on her)
You'll learn how to cheat in a clod fight.
You'll learn how to set a bear trap. 
(You'll also learn one of the drawbacks of setting bear traps)

It's a great gift for the person who has everything.
(It's much better than fruitcake.)

You can read it to your children and grandchildren.
Teens love it.
You can read it to your parents.
It makes a great inexpensive gift for birthdays, graduations, and special occasions.
(If you have as many gifts to buy as I do you'll appreciate that.)

You can take it anywhere.
I doesn't cost extra to carry on a plane.

You can read it on the plane.
You can read it in the plain.
You can read it while commuting. (Let others drive.)
You can read it while you're tooting.
(Sorry...I got caught up in the poetic feel of the thing.)

An autographed copy of Mason Bricklin is a unique gift.  (Great for business giving too.)

And the best reason to read "Mason Bricklin" is:

Drum Roll Please

You'll love it!  Everybody loves the love stricken sixth grade boy!
  (Read the Mason Bricklin excerpt; you decide.)

 Excerpt from Mason Bricklin

“Ouch!” I yelled. “Quit throwing rocks, jerks! Ouch! Quit it!”

I was mad. My two older brothers were throwing rocks at me. They were supposed to throw clods.

“I quit,” I said. “Now, give me my money.”

“What money?” Larson, my sixteen-year-old brother, asked.

“You know. The money you promised to give me for hitting you with clods.”

“You quit,” said Dell, my fifteen-year-old brother. “When you quit, you don’t get paid.”

“You guys are liars,” I said.

“Boo hoo, you little worm,” said Larson.

There wasn’t much I could do. I was only ten and not nearly as strong as my brothers. I didn’t care. I ran at Larson with all my might and hit him in the chest as hard as I could. He was an oak. I bounced off him like a gnat on an elephant. I was in trouble. Whack! He hit me in the nose. My nose started to bleed.

“You think a bloody nose bothers me?” Larson asked.

Whack! He hit me in the nose again.

Fighting Larson was suicide. I turned my attention to Dell who was twenty pounds lighter than Larson.

I punched Dell in the stomach as hard as I could.

“You little slime bucket,” said Dell.

He wrestled me to the ground. Dell sat on top of me; his knees pinned my arms.

“Do you give up?” he asked.

“No!” I yelled.

Whop! He hit me in the middle of my forehead. A knot welted up.

“Do you give up?” he asked again.

“No!” I yelled defiantly.

Whop! He hit me again; a second knot rose beside the first.

“Do you give up?” he asked a third time.

“No!”

Whop! A third knot appeared.

“Okay! I give up!” I yelled.

Dell let me up. He laughed and turned toward Larson. Whop! I hit him in the back of the head as hard as I could and ran away. I knew Dell was faster than me. I had to do something to escape his wrath. I ran to Dad’s drilling rig, which was only fifteen feet away, and started up the derrick. Dell grabbed my pant leg and tried to pull me off the ladder. He pulled and I kicked my leg as I tried to free myself. My pant leg tore at the knee. My pant leg remained in Dell’s hand and I scurried up the side of the derrick.

I climbed to the derrick board and scanned the countryside. Dad’s drilling rig was a small truck mounted unit. It was a single drilling rig which meant only thirty feet joints of drill pipe could be stacked in the derrick. I couldn’t believe I had climbed the derrick. I was terrified of heights. I looked around. The view was incredible.

“Come down here, you little puke!” yelled Dell.

“Yeah, sure,” I thought. “I’ll come right down and be your punching bag. Does he think I’m crazy? I’m waiting until Dad shows up before I go down.”

From my vantage point, I spotted a car about two miles away headed toward the our location. It was Dad’s car. We were in trouble now. Dad will be hopping mad.

My brothers and I helped my dad during the summers. We learned to run Dad’s drilling rig. Under Dad’s tutelage, we drilled five wells that summer. This was our final well before summer vacation ended.

Two men from Illinois had flown to Kansas to watch us drill the oil well. They had invested in the well. Dad was the owner and tool-pusher. Larson, my oldest brother, was the driller; Dell, my second oldest brother, was the derrick hand; and I was the floor hand. I wasn’t great help, but I was a warm body. I was a pretty good “go-fer” though. “Mason, ‘go-fer’ the hammer. Mason, ‘go-fer’ that pipe wrench and bring it here.”

We had just made a connection and had set the bit on bottom to drill when Dad and the investors decided to get some hamburgers. It took about two hours for the kelly to drill down before we made another connection. While the rig was drilling slow and Dad was gone my brothers talked me into a clod fight. Why not? Our location was in the middle of a freshly plowed field, and the clods would be soft. My brothers promised a dime every time I hit them with a clod. Besides, Dad wouldn’t find out.

My brothers were stocked with an ample supply of rocks which they failed to mention in negotiations. I threw soft clods at them and they threw rocks at me. I hit them with clods twenty times; they owed me two dollars. They hit me with rocks, and I had welts all over my body. That’s when the fight broke out.

Dad drove on location and he and the investors climbed out of the car with a sack of hamburgers. Dad saw me in the derrick with one pant leg missing. He knew I was terrified of heights and realized something chased me up the derrick ladder.

“What the thunder is going on here?” he asked. “Mason, get down here, NOW!”

I climbed down the ladder and stood in front of Dad with my two brothers.

“Mason, what happened?”

Dad wasn’t smiling, but the two investors were. I looked like a mugging victim. I had three knots on my head, two black eyes, a bloody nose, and a missing pant leg.

“I started it,” I said.

One of the investors laughed and spewed the hamburger he’d been munching. “I’ve got to hear this,” he said laughing.

“How did you get the black eyes and bloody nose?” Dad asked.

“I thought I was man enough to whip Larson and hit him in the chest as hard as I could. He didn’t take kindly to the attack and hit me a couple times.”

“How did you get the knots?” Dad asked.

“When I saw that Larson was more than I could handle I turned my attention to Dell and punched him in the stomach. He didn’t appreciate me either. He tackled me and asked me to give up. I didn’t until he put the knots on my head.”

“Did you give up then?” Dad asked.

“Yes sir.”

“How did your pants get torn?”

“When I realized I bit off more than I could chew by attacking Dell I decided a frontal attack was not the way to whip either brother. When Dell turned his head I hit him in the back of the head and took off running, and.....”

The other investor laughed so hard he choked on his hamburger. I had to wait to finish the explanation until he caught his breath. I thought for a minute we were going to have to perform the Heimlich maneuver.

“Anyway, I hit Dell in the back of the head and started up the side of derrick. Dell grabbed my pant leg and it ripped. He kept the pant leg and I scooted up the derrick; I decided to wait until you returned to climb back down.”

“Wise decision,” Dad said.

The kelly was down and we made another connection. The connection took only six minutes. That’s not too bad for two teenagers and an almost eleven-year-old. The investors were impressed.

After the connection was made and we ate our hamburgers Dad asked, “Mason, how did you get the welts on your arms?”

“I must have gotten them when I climbed the derrick,” I lied.

Dad didn’t say anything, but I saw him look at some rocks that were in the corner of the doghouse. I’m sure he knew what happened. He probably figured I had a good reason for lying. Besides, he was pretty proud of the connection we had just made.

Later, my brothers handed me three dollars although I had only earned two of it. They knew I kept them from a reaming. “Thanks, buddy,” they said. My brothers and I got along pretty good for quite awhile after the incident....at least until I got mad at them again.

After we completed the well, we washed the rig and got it ready for storage. It wouldn’t be used again until next summer. We helped Dad set a tank battery, run lead lines from the well to the tank battery, and set a pump-jack on the well. We were busier than mosquitoes in a hail storm.

The well we drilled produced ten barrels of oil a day which isn’t bad for a five hundred feet deep well. The Illinois men were pleased with the operation and wanted to invest in more wells. They told Dad that his operation was a good monetary investment, and we provided good entertainment as well.

After the investors left Dad gave instructions to the pumper, Howie Davidson, about producing the wells and we left the leases for the summer. School started the next week and we had five days to purchase school clothes, gather school supplies, and reacquaint ourselves with our friends. Mom will be glad to see us.

“You boys did a good job for a bunch of punk kids,” Dad said as we began the two hundred mile trip home.

“Punk kids?” Larson objected. “Why, we’re regular oil men now.”

Dad laughed. “You worked as hard as most men. And that’s saying something.”

“Even Worm Mason?” asked Dell.

“Even Mason,” Dad said.

“If you boys work as hard at school as you do on the leases you’ll do okay.”

I didn't have a clue what awaited me at school.

Copyright 2008 J-me