The kids of a small South Dakota town all were watching the clock that Sunday. There were 5 who were best friends through tough times. They had agreed in school on Friday to meet at the Cottonwood tree near the church. The bell began to ring signifying Sunday service was over and five children ran as fast as they could without being detected. They were all standing under a cottonwood tree anxious to see what the other had brought as their friendship trinket. The clouds were huge and rolling across the vast skyblue day. The sunlight was peeking through the branches almost causing a stage light effect on the first trade agreement of the children of hard working farmers. A slight breeze had kicked up just enough to cause white feathers from a nearby chicken coup and land them on the children. "This is a good omen" - said Lex to your grandfather, Linne, JO, and the other one as he peeled the feather off his Sunday best and blew it back into the wind. Everyone had met at the tree after church that Sunday to trade tokens of everlasting friendship and good luck.
Out of each little pocket from jeans and apron a treasure was pulled. Linne had a silver good luck token with his families names stamped forever in time as a reminder of a local county fair, your grandpa dug deep into his pants pocket and handed Linne the canine tooth of a real wolf. The others exchanged thier trinkets and this forever sealed the bonds of their friendship.
If ever one was in trouble all he or she ever had to do was send that token to the other friend and all would come running. In South Dakota there was little cause for trouble. An occasional Plains Indian or traveling Sioux, but no real trouble.
As time and years wore on, the war broke out. Many of our finest young men were called to service and in those last minutes of standing in his bedroom, perhaps for the last time; your grandfather quickly thought about what he could take with him to give him power over the hell he would soon face. He quickly remembered the token from his youth and scoured through the shoe box under his bed, put the good luck coin in his pocket. He did this knowing that in all the years before and his enduring friendship with Linne all their trinkets had kept them safe. So he chose this memento to keep him safe during the war, and it did.
When he returned from the war - Lyndon or Linne as he liked to be called had moved. Your grandfather never got a chance to tell him that Linne's good luck charm really worked, and kept him safe from harm. After that he carried it with him forever. For luck. For childhood memories. For Linne's friendship. And to someday give to a granddaughter that would also need some good luck.
how about that?