Dear Editor,

My name is Jerry Ecklor and I live in Oroville. Most everyone here knows me as I grew up here and had a business called Village Appliance Repair for 40 years. I am pretty much retired now. I would have worked longer but I found out that I had Parkinson’s and that is why I am telling this story. I want all you who have this illness to know that there is hope for us. We don’t have a normal life but we know there are much worse things we could have.

My story starts off this summer. This is all true. I was going to Prince’s hardware to get some parts for a honeydew job to fix the toilet. I was driving my little white Camaro, which is low and hard to get in and out of, but it’s still fun to drive. I got out of the car and did my shuffle walk into the store (you people with Parkinson’s will surely know what that is). I got my parts and went back to the car and started for home, which is only two blocks away. The parking lot was busy with shoppers.

Before I got very far across the parking lot something very strange happened. Something under the seat grabbed my leg and jerked it back under the seat. This startled me to say the least so I stopped the car and jumped out real quick and got down to look under the seat. You know here in eastern Washington we have real nasty critters out here. Snakes, pack rats, coyotes, bats, you name it and I sometimes leave the window down. Well I looked under the seat very carefully but there was nothing there. People were starting to look at me kind of funny now so I got back in the car thinking it wasn’t too far to home and I would check it out real good there and not out in the middle of Prince’s lot.

So I jumped in or kind of slid into the car and started for home. This time I was in a little more of a hurry when it happened again, only harder back went my leg. This time I was in the intersection and I bailed out right there. The other people of Oroville must have been wondering what Jerry was up to today as I was on my hands and knees there in the street. I was really creeped out now and I didn’t want to leave my car there. This time I moved the seat forward an looked real good way up under the seat where I could see way to the top of the the seat cushion. Nothing. I thought it must have moved to the passenger side. With the chills going up my spine, I was going to go home. Then I glanced down and saw it. All wrapped around my leg, going under the seat and out the door and under the rear tire was a…long piece of fishing line. Every time I moved the car I ran over the line with the tire and it pulled my leg under the seat. I laughed so hard.

Who knows what people were thinking now.

Jerry Ecklor

Oroville