The Golden Arm – Erv Kasian Version

The mountain streams in California were full of gold nuggets. Prospectors such as Jake Tompkins panned the gravel from the bottom of the streams day after day in hopes of getting rich. Jake's mother, Mary, came to the mountains with him and kept to their campsite. She cooked the food, washed and mended Jake's clothes. That gave Jake more time to search for gold.

One day when Jake was panning for gold he heard his mother scream. He grabbed his gun that was leaning against a nearby tree and ran to the camp. A large bear had his mother's arm in its mouth and was dragging her from the site. A quick shot to the bear's head dropped it in its tracks.

Jake pried the bear's jaw open to release Mary's arm. The flesh on the arm had been torn off to the bone from the elbow to the hand. Mary was quiet now as she had passed out from the pain. Jake put a tourniquet on the arm just above the elbow to stop the bleeding. Seeing that there was no way the forearm could heal he knew that it would have to be cut off. As he was a Civil War veteran he had seen many men have parts of arms and legs cut off. He thought he knew what to do.

Before Mary regained consciousness Jake took the wood saw and cut off the mangled forearm. Then he took a burning stick from the campfire and sealed off the wound to prevent infection. Last he found some clean clothes to rip up and bandaged the arm stub.

With Mary unconscious moaning Jack buried the piece of arm then butchered the dead bear. The bear meat would be smoked and dried. Food could not be wasted when prospecting in the mountains. The days that followed Jake took care of his mother while her arm healed. He still spent most of his time panning and searching for gold.

One day he was walking up the creek where he had been getting quite a bit of gold in his pan and there it was. It was a pure gold rock as big as a double bed. Solid gold! Jake and his mother would be rich. Richer than old King Midas, some old Greek that his touch turned anything to gold. Yes sir, they could have anything in the world they wanted.

It took a great deal of time to break the large gold rock into pieces and get it all to a bank. Mary even with only one arm was a great help to him. After they left the mountain and had a fine house in San Francisco Jake decided to give his mother a new arm. The new arm would be made of solid gold. Mary was very pleased with the golden arm and wore it whenever she attended high society events. “My son gave this to me,” she would tell everyone.

It was not hard for Jake to find a wife as women liked rich men not matter their rough manners. Mary decided to move to a smaller house that was more to her liking that the mansion. The years went by and Mary grew old and died. She was laid out in a fine wooden coffin trimmed with gold angels. Her gold arm was fastened to her body. It was to remain there forever.

An item that valuable seem a waste to people who saw it as far too valuable to languish in a tomb. Even with a guard on the tomb, someone broke into it. The lid of the coffin ripped off and the golden arm taken. The very next night a ghost appeared on the streets of San Francisco crying as if in pain, “Who has my golden arm?'

Over and over the cry, “Who has my golden arm?' Erv walked around the Rosen Bowl repeating this until he glared at a camper and pointed. With a scream Erv would shout, “You got my golden arm!