Poems & Stories - Book 5

Poems & Stories - Book 5

James Douglas Leach was a WWII baby named after Douglas McArther on July 9th, 1943. Jim is a risk taker and likes to jump off a cliff and look for an umbrella on the way down. It has served him well. His success in the stock market and Bitcoin has been a pleasure. This octogenarian says his accomplishments are due in large part to Cindy, his lovely and talented wife of 60 years. She would dress up in crazy costumes and entertain on our bus tours. She became a volunteer EMT first, and Jim followed her lead. They were on ambulance duty in Cheyenne County for ten years. Jim’s résumé of over-the-top life experiences is amazing. He farmed 7,000 acres of mostly rented land in Bird City, Kansas, and put 10,000 hours on his first tractor, a 900 Case. The lost art of straight driving became obsolete with GPS. This farm kid, now man, set the state record for the highest yield in sugar beet production in Kansas. He is an overachiever who likes hot cars and has raced five of the six corvettes he has owned at the Wichita, KS, International Drag Strip. He is a competition ballroom dancer who plays the guitar and a six string gitjo. His favorite picture is with a live tiger in Moscow, Russia; two glasses of wine for liquid courage helped. The author, Jim, has published six books of poetry and short stories, writing his first poem in the second grade. A pool shark in high school, he still tries to enjoy the game, peering through trifocals. At 53 years of age, Jim quit farming, sold his machinery, kept his farmland, and looked forward to a new adventure. Wondering what he could do without a college education, a sudden dream appeared: to drive a 45-foot tour bus all over the U.S. This wish came to fruition when he and his wife launched Jim and Cindy’s Tours in Wichita, Kansas. They never dreamed he would drive a bus 700,000 miles in the U.S. and they would be flying all over the world. Now, this couple has escorted 18,000 tourists on 530 trips to 148 international destinations including 500 airplane flights in the last 25 years. Jim is clairvoyant and has what he calls divine interventions twice a week. His kids call him 1-900 Jim. Cindy and Jim are Christians, and Jim has a renewed friendship with Jesus Christ after his seven-by-pass open heart surgery.