What: Cody the bull wandered out from Yellowstone park and was tearing up fences. It was Donnie’s idea to round him up. He was 7 miles west out of town in a large sagebrush flat that had stands of pine trees everywhere. F tied a rope on both his horns, Cody ran pulling the 3 boys in skippy’s car. They finally dropped about a foot straight down into a stream of fast moving water. They ended up on the other side of the stream. Cody ran off with both front wheels and the axle.
Where: west Yellowstone, near the KOA
When: 1940’s
Why: bc the boys were looking for adventure while trying to be helpful
Possible hints:
did this story really happen? Why didn’t some adult law men handle this instead of these 3 young lads?
F didn’t have shoes - again - just like when skippy left him for the long walk home
The long walk home in this story was wet and cold, they didn’t realize until much later how fun it had been - another example of worth the cold
What: f needed some elbow room (possibly from his parents) and went into the mountains w Donnie to look for Lewis’s and Clarke. They rented 2 horses and took 3 baby Ruth chocolate bars each for nourishment. It was a beautiful journey but they got lost and went hungry. They had issues starting their fires and got rained on. They lost their horses at one point as well, and following fast running streams didn’t get them out of the woods. Donnie was in a serious swivet, especially when his right strap broke and he had to walk. Eventuality the horses got them onto a road.
Where: the mountains
When: when f was 16
Why: he was a teenager who was looking for adventure but was
inexperienced and unprepared
Supporting evidence:
at the end he says “the older you get the smarter your parents become”
He got lost with his friend in the mountains - no compass - unprepared
They only packed 3 baby Ruth chocolate bars each to eat - they went hungry
What: f remembers a road trip with skippy where they had an argument and skippy left him in the middle of nowhere with no money, no coat, and no shoes. He sat by the road for about an hour to think, then as it stared to get cold and he began to walk, that’s when skippy came back. They didn’t talk about their fight and never fought again. He recalls Skippy’s death, a scuba diving accident in Cozumel in 90 feet of water with his weights on. F bribed 2 officials to get his body home.
Where: road trip, right somewhere between Shoshone and Casper
When: when skippy was still a teenager
Why: bc f wants to share that sometimes it’s better to slam the door on a relationship and start over without discussion.
Hints and clues:
Skippy was found w his weights on 😢
(Heavy loads?)
He was found in 90 feet of water (nod to 9 mile hole? Water high?)
His brother returned as it was getting cold (worth the cold?)
Frosty his boss at the totem cafe, his mother, the old lady who made pies, waitress
What: f was fired from his paper route job, possibly bc we was seen sitting. He and his mom cried together, she helped him get a job at the totem cafe where he worked for 16 hrs a day and made 8 dollars per shift. He was caught eating a pie by frosty and was almost fired but the old lady and a waitress stood up for him.
Where: west Yellowstone, streets and totem cafe
When: 1940s
F was 80lbs
Why: f wanted to earn money
Possible hints:
his manager who was unpleasant was named frosty - worth the cold? Cold = uncomfortable
What: his father would drive the family to Yellowstone at 35 miles per hr for 1600 miles w no air conditioning or radio in their 36 Chevy.
His father replaced the vehicle with a 41 Plymouth and f felt insecure after that. He thought his father could get rid of him like he got rid the of the car.
When: in the 40s
Why: f’s father was a principal and had the summers off. Yellowstone is an amazing place to visit.
Possible hint: agate rocks, he said he had 3 months off but it may have been 2. His father would drive 50 miles out of their way to see a school house that had a sign “he who teaches a child labors with God in his workshop”
Possible hint: this is chapter 9, if his spot was 9mh this would be a hint
He loved Yellowstone and never considered another spot
What: f would sneak out when he heard them in town, he would hide under a wagon and watch 5/6 girls of all ages dance around a large fire. He thought they saw him but didn’t say anything.
What: f says he shoots birds w his BB gun to help feed his family of 5, (mainly meadowlarks but sometimes a scissor tail if he was short on meadowlarks). He says he learned not to waste shots on robins bc they could see his bb’s coming. The scissor tails apparently ate disgusting things compared to the meadowlarks, so he made sure his siblings ate it instead of himself or his parents. F also says that sometimes, after getting “switched”, he would sneak out of his bedroom window in the middle of the night as revenge, and walk down the street to the grave yard. He would sit on a man’s gravestone and stated a kid could do a lot of thinking that way.
Where: temple Texas,
Hillcrest Cemetery
1873 N First St
Temple, TX 76501
United States
When: 1943+
Why: He was starting to make his own important decisions, weighing right, wrong, and grey areas
Possible hints:
He shot birds to help feed his family - is there a deeper meaning to this?
it wasn’t legal to shoot birds, but Marvin allowed it.
the types of birds he shot are in question - in rumblings and ramblings we are told he sometimes shot mockingbirds instead of scissor tails, why did he change the type of bird? Mockingbirds are beloved, could that be why?
He walked straight down to the cemetery - is he giving us a clue about directions? “Straight down/look quickly down”
Who: ff, maternal grandmother (Arie Beatrice Simpson), his siblings (skippy and June), his parents
What: f remembers his maternal grandmother’s days as a child in Ft. Worth, when Indians happily chased chicken’s near her property. He remembers being the middle child in his family and wishes they’d return so he could be in the middle again.
Where: ff’s memory bank, Fort Worth, tx, pics of his siblings at Hebgen lake
When: various years, some unknown years
Why: because fenn was remembering that in his opinion his family was better than most and he was feeling nostalgic
Possible hints: the Comanche Indians were chasing chickens and f’s grandmother watched. The Indians had a good time even when they failed
The idea of someone/something being in the middle, somewhere/somehow
Who: ff, school kids, miss ford, Marvin fenn, old lady at the pie factory
What: The reader is told f uses his time in Spanish class to create toys to sell to his “rich” schoolmates who are driven to school. He makes money to spend on indulgences such as Fritos, coke, ice cream, and pies. Things are starting to go well for F, he believes his father is proud of him and he starts to like himself, which suggests he is gaining confidence. F is the best marble player in his school and makes sure the girls know it.
Where: Spanish class with miss ford at central junior high school
When: 1943ish
Why: he was beginning to learn the value of money and the advantages of a capitalistic system of government. He was learning to use his street smarts / imagination to create wealth.
Possible hints / noteworthy sentences:
Always carried a small sandstone slab in his pocket (kinda like an ace in the pocket)
Sold to rich kids who always had a drive to school (kids who didn’t have to work as hard, perhaps less savvy)
He dreamt of the sweet old lady who broke pies for him so he could afford them
Who: FF (about 8 yrs old) 2 Old Biddies who lived down the block (about 30 yrs old), F's mother is mentioned.
What: F overhears the 2 biddies saying he would run away from home but he's not allowed to cross the street. He loathed them since then.
Where: A big church social, everyone was there. It is assumed the church may have been "First Baptist Church 102 W Barton St, Temple, 76501"
When: When F was about 8 years old, presumably 1938.
Why: The women spoke unkindly about F, who was just a child, in a place where they were supposed to be showing love. They thought they were better than him because they lived in brick housed and were nasty, as some people are in this world.
Possible Hint: The searcher will have to cross the street somewhere and other searchers may not agree.
- Ch 1 First Grade (who, what, where, when, why, possible hint...)
Who: FF, his father Marvin Fenn - principal, the kids (John Charles - antagonist, and his mother - also an antagonist, Billy Jo Ray - friend, Ora Mae - lunch bucket woman/janitor, ff's mother
What / Inciting Incident: F's father gets promoted to principal after a couple of years, F is proud and puts a sign at his father's new special parking spot, he gets bullied.
Where: Lanier School, Texas
When: Sept, 1936
Why: The bully is jealous of Fenn and his father, he likely believes Fenn is showing off.
Possible Hint: Sept 16 stamp, awareness first step, GPS coordinates
the cold creek pours into the warmer madison at 16" longitude at 9 mile hole. Two beginings that line up.
Chapter 14
Buffalo Cowboys
Who: ff, skippy, Donnie Joe, Cody the bulll
What: Cody the bull wandered out from Yellowstone park and was tearing up fences. It was Donnie’s idea to round him up. He was 7 miles west out of town in a large sagebrush flat that had stands of pine trees everywhere. F tied a rope on both his horns, Cody ran pulling the 3 boys in skippy’s car. They finally dropped about a foot straight down into a stream of fast moving water. They ended up on the other side of the stream. Cody ran off with both front wheels and the axle.
Where: west Yellowstone, near the KOA
When: 1940’s
Why: bc the boys were looking for adventure while trying to be helpful
Possible hints:
did this story really happen? Why didn’t some adult law men handle this instead of these 3 young lads?
F didn’t have shoes - again - just like when skippy left him for the long walk home
The long walk home in this story was wet and cold, they didn’t realize until much later how fun it had been - another example of worth the cold
Chapter 13
Looking for Lewis and Clark
Who: ff and his friend Donnie Joe
What: f needed some elbow room (possibly from his parents) and went into the mountains w Donnie to look for Lewis’s and Clarke. They rented 2 horses and took 3 baby Ruth chocolate bars each for nourishment. It was a beautiful journey but they got lost and went hungry. They had issues starting their fires and got rained on. They lost their horses at one point as well, and following fast running streams didn’t get them out of the woods. Donnie was in a serious swivet, especially when his right strap broke and he had to walk. Eventuality the horses got them onto a road.
Where: the mountains
When: when f was 16
Why: he was a teenager who was looking for adventure but was
inexperienced and unprepared
Supporting evidence:
at the end he says “the older you get the smarter your parents become”
He got lost with his friend in the mountains - no compass - unprepared
They only packed 3 baby Ruth chocolate bars each to eat - they went hungry
They lost their horses - instead of tying them up
Chapter 12
The long ride home
Who: ff and skippy
What: f remembers a road trip with skippy where they had an argument and skippy left him in the middle of nowhere with no money, no coat, and no shoes. He sat by the road for about an hour to think, then as it stared to get cold and he began to walk, that’s when skippy came back. They didn’t talk about their fight and never fought again. He recalls Skippy’s death, a scuba diving accident in Cozumel in 90 feet of water with his weights on. F bribed 2 officials to get his body home.
Where: road trip, right somewhere between Shoshone and Casper
When: when skippy was still a teenager
Why: bc f wants to share that sometimes it’s better to slam the door on a relationship and start over without discussion.
Hints and clues:
Skippy was found w his weights on 😢
(Heavy loads?)
He was found in 90 feet of water (nod to 9 mile hole? Water high?)
His brother returned as it was getting cold (worth the cold?)
Chapter 11
My Brother being skippy
Who: ff, skippy, neighborhood kids, parents
What: f remembers skippy never losing his inventiveness or his originality and claims he was the most intuitive person he ever knew.
One time he created a flying machine that lifted about a inch off the ground. He also landed a plane in Hebgen lake.
Where: f’s house and hebgen lake
When: around the 1940’s when skippy was a teenager
Why: f recalls admiring his brother like he was a god for doing atrocious and astonishing things
Possible hints: hebgen lake?
Chapter 10
The Totem Cafe Caper
Who: ff, boss fork paper route,
Frosty his boss at the totem cafe, his mother, the old lady who made pies, waitress
What: f was fired from his paper route job, possibly bc we was seen sitting. He and his mom cried together, she helped him get a job at the totem cafe where he worked for 16 hrs a day and made 8 dollars per shift. He was caught eating a pie by frosty and was almost fired but the old lady and a waitress stood up for him.
Where: west Yellowstone, streets and totem cafe
When: 1940s
F was 80lbs
Why: f wanted to earn money
Possible hints:
his manager who was unpleasant was named frosty - worth the cold? Cold = uncomfortable
Chapter 9
In love with Yellowstone
Who: ff, his father
What: his father would drive the family to Yellowstone at 35 miles per hr for 1600 miles w no air conditioning or radio in their 36 Chevy.
His father replaced the vehicle with a 41 Plymouth and f felt insecure after that. He thought his father could get rid of him like he got rid the of the car.
When: in the 40s
Why: f’s father was a principal and had the summers off. Yellowstone is an amazing place to visit.
Possible hint: agate rocks, he said he had 3 months off but it may have been 2. His father would drive 50 miles out of their way to see a school house that had a sign “he who teaches a child labors with God in his workshop”
Possible hint: this is chapter 9, if his spot was 9mh this would be a hint
He loved Yellowstone and never considered another spot
He was going to make it work no matter what
Chapter 8
Gypsy Magic
Who: ff, Gypsies
What: f would sneak out when he heard them in town, he would hide under a wagon and watch 5/6 girls of all ages dance around a large fire. He thought they saw him but didn’t say anything.
Where: The Katy rr tracks
When: 1940’s
Why: f wanted to be near magic
Possible hint: f is hinting that he was a spy
Chapter 7
Surviving myself
Who: ff, his family, birds
What: f says he shoots birds w his BB gun to help feed his family of 5, (mainly meadowlarks but sometimes a scissor tail if he was short on meadowlarks). He says he learned not to waste shots on robins bc they could see his bb’s coming. The scissor tails apparently ate disgusting things compared to the meadowlarks, so he made sure his siblings ate it instead of himself or his parents. F also says that sometimes, after getting “switched”, he would sneak out of his bedroom window in the middle of the night as revenge, and walk down the street to the grave yard. He would sit on a man’s gravestone and stated a kid could do a lot of thinking that way.
Where: temple Texas,
Hillcrest Cemetery
1873 N First St
Temple, TX 76501
United States
When: 1943+
Why: He was starting to make his own important decisions, weighing right, wrong, and grey areas
Possible hints:
He shot birds to help feed his family - is there a deeper meaning to this?
it wasn’t legal to shoot birds, but Marvin allowed it.
the types of birds he shot are in question - in rumblings and ramblings we are told he sometimes shot mockingbirds instead of scissor tails, why did he change the type of bird? Mockingbirds are beloved, could that be why?
He walked straight down to the cemetery - is he giving us a clue about directions? “Straight down/look quickly down”
Chapter 6
Me in the middle
Who: ff, maternal grandmother (Arie Beatrice Simpson), his siblings (skippy and June), his parents
What: f remembers his maternal grandmother’s days as a child in Ft. Worth, when Indians happily chased chicken’s near her property. He remembers being the middle child in his family and wishes they’d return so he could be in the middle again.
Where: ff’s memory bank, Fort Worth, tx, pics of his siblings at Hebgen lake
When: various years, some unknown years
Why: because fenn was remembering that in his opinion his family was better than most and he was feeling nostalgic
Possible hints: the Comanche Indians were chasing chickens and f’s grandmother watched. The Indians had a good time even when they failed
The idea of someone/something being in the middle, somewhere/somehow
Chapter 5
My Spanish Toy Factory
Who: ff, school kids, miss ford, Marvin fenn, old lady at the pie factory
What: The reader is told f uses his time in Spanish class to create toys to sell to his “rich” schoolmates who are driven to school. He makes money to spend on indulgences such as Fritos, coke, ice cream, and pies. Things are starting to go well for F, he believes his father is proud of him and he starts to like himself, which suggests he is gaining confidence. F is the best marble player in his school and makes sure the girls know it.
Where: Spanish class with miss ford at central junior high school
When: 1943ish
Why: he was beginning to learn the value of money and the advantages of a capitalistic system of government. He was learning to use his street smarts / imagination to create wealth.
Possible hints / noteworthy sentences:
Always carried a small sandstone slab in his pocket (kinda like an ace in the pocket)
Sold to rich kids who always had a drive to school (kids who didn’t have to work as hard, perhaps less savvy)
He dreamt of the sweet old lady who broke pies for him so he could afford them
Chapter 4: Bessie and Me
Who: ff, bessie the cow, and Ms ford
What: Ms ford embarrassed f by suggesting he should change his pants before class.
Where: at the central junior high school
When: Around 1943
Why: Ms ford didn’t know f was running late
Possible hints:
He would squirt milk in the cats mouths and they felt blessed
Noteworthy sentence: until you have loved a cow, part of your soul remains undiscovered
Image of cow is flipped
Chapter 3:
Jump starting the learning curve
Who: ff, his father, Miss Ford
What: ff tells Ms ford that his father called her an old bat. His father tells him to tell the truth, but not the whole truth.
Where: Central Junior High School
401 N Main St, Temple Texas, 76501
When: in 1943
Why: It is important to be savvy and street smart. Telling the whole truth can be counterproductive sometimes
Possible hints and notable lines:
don’t make the alligator mad before you crossed the River
He prayed for d’s but nobody listened
“Forrest fenn, don’t you know anything?”
“Miss Ford, I don’t even suspect anything”
Chapter 2 - No Place For Biddies
Who: FF (about 8 yrs old) 2 Old Biddies who lived down the block (about 30 yrs old), F's mother is mentioned.
What: F overhears the 2 biddies saying he would run away from home but he's not allowed to cross the street. He loathed them since then.
Where: A big church social, everyone was there. It is assumed the church may have been "First Baptist Church 102 W Barton St, Temple, 76501"
When: When F was about 8 years old, presumably 1938.
Why: The women spoke unkindly about F, who was just a child, in a place where they were supposed to be showing love. They thought they were better than him because they lived in brick housed and were nasty, as some people are in this world.
Possible Hint: The searcher will have to cross the street somewhere and other searchers may not agree.
- Ch 1 First Grade (who, what, where, when, why, possible hint...)
Who: FF, his father Marvin Fenn - principal, the kids (John Charles - antagonist, and his mother - also an antagonist, Billy Jo Ray - friend, Ora Mae - lunch bucket woman/janitor, ff's mother
What / Inciting Incident: F's father gets promoted to principal after a couple of years, F is proud and puts a sign at his father's new special parking spot, he gets bullied.
Where: Lanier School, Texas
When: Sept, 1936
Why: The bully is jealous of Fenn and his father, he likely believes Fenn is showing off.
Possible Hint: Sept 16 stamp, awareness first step, GPS coordinates
the cold creek pours into the warmer madison at 16" longitude at 9 mile hole. Two beginings that line up.
~ Credit to JPC