Sam Milone
Mr. Jensen & Mr. Turman
American Studies
13 October 2014
The Tales of Jed Wilder: An Autobiography “ Are you in or not Jed?” Freddy asked, “I’m just worried” I replied nervously. “Worried? About what?” he said angrily, “What if we get caught and go to jail! Then what?” I yelled back. “Look, it’s simple, just point the gun at him while I hold the bag and demand for the money, okay?” he said, “Alright, I’ll do it. Lets go.” A man is forced to make many decisions in his life; this was perhaps the worst decision I had ever made. I had a decent life; I was able to go to school when I was little, I started first grade in 1828, I was six. When I started there were only four other first graders in class, one of them became my best friend I ever had. Fred Waters was a bold, fearless boy; he was the one who always got me into trouble. Our favorite hobby was catching garden snakes. Once we caught them we would let them loose by the neighbors horse only to watch the horse be startled, and if we were lucky the horse would break the tie and run off. The only problem was almost every time we did this I was given extra chores. Freddy’s parents didn’t really care, his dad was a gambling drunk and his mom was too sweet to scold him for anything. So Freddy and I went through our years of school, learning how to read and write, all the while pulling off pranks that made people upset. I think by the time we graduated eight grade in 1836 everyone in our town of Independence, Missouri knew who we were. We were both fourteen now so it was time to figure out what we were going to do with our lives. I started working with my dad farming tobacco, while Freddy was learning the ways of a blacksmith. I was starting to act a little more mature, as I knew it was time to grow up, but Freddy never changed his ways. He continued to act the way he did in first grade. I knew it was time to grow up because I knew that my generation would be the ones who would have to make The United States of America a strong and powerful country. Many people thought that the only way to make our country powerful was to keep expanding, I agreed. It was 1846 and I was now eighteen years old, things haven’t changed too much. I was still working for my dad and Freddy was a complete blacksmith now, but he was still really immature. His parents were getting worried about him, because they didn’t know how he was going to be able to run his own shop in a couple of years if he was this immature. That’s when Freddy’s parents threatened to send him off to the military. America just started a war with Mexico over two territories that the U.S. wanted. So Freddy’s parents thought that if they sent him off to war he would have to grow up. But once they told him this he immediately started to act like he should. He stopped all the pranks and actually started to respect people. At first I was really impressed, but I knew that it was only a matter of time before he broke and went back to his old ways. It was 1849, I’m 27 and the war with Mexico has just ended a year ago. To no surprise the U.S. had won, gaining more land and proving our power. My life is going pretty good, but it could be better. Both of my parents died last year and I took over the farm scene by myself. I had yet to find a girl that I could settle down with, but I was feeling good about it. It was September 13, I remember this day vividly as it was the day my life cascaded downhill. It started off like any other day; I woke up, started chopping some wood, and then cooked myself some breakfast. After that I went right to work on the farm. It was a hard, but normal day out in the field. Freddy and I had plans to go into town and have some drinks at the local saloon, but Freddy had other plans. I got into town and saw Freddy pacing in front of the saloon; he seemed excided and scared at the same time. So I approached him and asked him what the problem was, he then proceeded to shove a gun in my hand and told me