When something goes wrong, both adults and children prefer to shift the blame to someone or something else. Its a bad habit. Children, when they are young, make up stories shifting the blame to a sibling, an imaginary person or monster, or anything that pops into their head so they won’t be scolded for their wrong doing. I have seen a number of YouTube videos that went viral with children denying they ate the donuts, cookies, etc. that were very cute. Children learn from us to blame others or circumstances. How many times has a teacher heard “the dog ate my homework?” When people are late for work or school many times they shift the blame to traffic, weather, their car, or public transportation was late. Sometimes many of their reasons are valid. However, there are always the people who do not leave in time to reach their destination without being late. There is an old episode in “Leave it to Beaver” in which all the boys are playing baseball and the Beave goes along with Wally. He ends up holding everyone’s items. After the game, Lumpy claimed that the Beaver lost his watch. The beave cannot figure out how but Lumpy threatened him to either give him the money for a new watch or he would tell his parents. The Beave sneaked a savings bond out of his dad’s desk and tried to cash it in. The bank teller refused and as soon as he left the teller called Ward. Ward was furious until he found out the truth. What was worse was that Lumpy had truly lost his watch, two weeks before the game. His mother had found it in his jacket and was not going to tell him until he told her and his father. So Lumpy shifted the blame to the Beave in the hopes of not getting caught. Unfortunately, Ward called his dad and then everything was exposed. In the old west, without advanced studies or knowledge of weather conditions, electronics or even the old fashioned phone, they could shift the blame to their horse, their neighbors, weather, etc. For example, in Book Three, “Cory Returns” Cory was walking his horse Midnight to a spring for a drink. On the way a snake slithered out from under a rock and frightened Midnight so much that he reared back and took off. In this instance, Cory blamed the snake and rightfully so. The snake was an unexpected occurrence. In my books I present situations and adventures with a variety of outcomes. At no time was blame placed on anyone. Life and the circumstances surrounding it in the old west made everyone realize that if anything went wrong they were to blame or the circumstances surrounding an event such as weather or accidents were simply that and nothing more. When you think about friendship, and people helping people regardless of the circumstances or if anyone is to blame, please take a glance at “Cory Returns.” The Good Gus Series is available online at Kindle, Nook and Waterstones. Hard copies, personally autographed, are available through our website www.goodgusbooks.com along with past blogs for your reading enjoyment. Now available audio and videos for the Good Gus series on YouTube! Digitizing for all the books are available now on YouTube! “Misplaced Trust” is now available on Amazon in e-book form. It is also available digitally at www.misplacedtrustbook.com. If you are thinking of a Will or a Living Trust, “Misplaced Trust” will give you the information you need to make an informed decision. The Good Gus series, books one through four, are now available at the Morgan Mill Mail/UPS.