LEARNING FROM A GREMLIN

I remember buying what I think was my fourth car. It was a Gremlin. It was yellow with black trim. It was different and unique in shape from most cars on the road at the time, so I guess that’s what attracted me to it. I found out quickly that the fuel gauge was very accurate. Thankfully, I was almost home when it hit E and stopped in the middle of the road. I had to push it the rest of the way. That’s the car I was driving when I almost went off the embankment because a girl fell over on the stirring wheel. If you missed that story, you can read all about it in the post called, *3 Girls, 3 Guys, And A Gremlin.

I loved that car but it was used and I didn’t have it long. I was driving down a two-lane highway one day and the car in front of me was going a bit slower than I wanted to go, so I decided to go around it. I had seen people drop their gear shifter on automatic cars down a gear in order to get up more speed to pass another car. They called it passing gear. Well, I needed some more speed so that’s what I did. I wish I hadn’t, though, because when I did, the car down-shifted hard and started vibrating really bad. I heard a terrible noise like pieces of the motor falling off onto the road. I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw those pieces sliding all over the highway behind me.

What a mess. What a disappointment. I only had the thing for a few weeks. I stopped as quickly as I could on a little gravel road. To my surprise, the car was still running so I drove just a bit further to the gas station and went in to call my uncle. He came and looked at it and confirmed that the car had slung a rod. I told him it was still running when I made it to the store, so he told me to start it up and see if it would still run. I did, and it did, so he followed me as I drove it to his house. That was a sad day. I miss that car sometimes and on the rare occasion when I see a yellow Gremlin, I’m reminded of those thrilling days.

I have had so many used cars over the years that I doubt I could remember them all. I do remember at least ten cars and a truck from the time I was sixteen until I was twenty-three, though. Some were used, some were more used than others, and some were really used. Some had been well maintained, but some had not. The ones that had been taken care of were in better shape, of course, and they lasted longer. The ones that had been neglected were in bad shape and didn’t last long at all. I’m sure all of them would have lasted longer if I had taken better care of them myself, but I didn’t. I was a young man with a heavy foot and I drove too fast and was hard on my cars. I didn’t have the oil changed regularly and I didn’t really check it regularly. In short, I neglected them.

I did the same thing with my body for years. I ate what I wanted. I drank what I wanted. I drank alcohol and used drugs. I partied and I stayed out all night. I took drugs to stay awake. I took drugs to help me sleep. I gained weight, then starved myself to lose it. I took laxatives and weight loss drugs. Even after I stopped drinking and doing drugs, I spent lots of late nights playing video games, reading comic books, and organizing baseball cards. All that abuse to my body, plus the wear and tear from several strenuous jobs and two car wrecks have taken a toll on me. Now, my body is worn out and I’m in constant pain.

I’m thankful to God for helping me to give up those bad habits, but the damage is done. What bothers me the most is that a lot of it could have been avoided. If I had been more concerned about my health back then, I would still have a lot more good years left in me. The Bible says our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us (1 Corinthians 6:19). We need to take care of his temple. Our bodies are like machines. Just like those machines, if our bodies don’t have regular maintenance they don’t last near as long as they will if we take good care of them.

Our bodies can’t live without WATER so that would be a good place to start. We need to drink plenty of water. REST is very important as well, so we need to try to get eight hours of sleep each night. We need to get plenty of fresh AIR, so walking outside and doing other kinds of EXERCISE outdoors is a great way to kill two birds with one stone.

Another very important thing we need is SUNSHINE. Not all, but many living things need sunshine to be healthy. Of course, too much sunlight can be harmful. We need it in moderate amounts. Too much of anything can be bad for you, so we need to practice MODERATION in every area of our lives and we need to avoid putting things into our bodies that will harm them. We need to develop good eating habits and eat only foods that will promote good health. Good NUTRITION is imperative to maintaining both physical and mental health. Both of those are connected to our spiritual health. Usually, if we are lacking in one of these three areas, the other two will be affected. We need to round it all out by TRUSTING GOD to provide for all our needs and following his instructions in the Bible. All these things will help our bodies and minds to feel better and last longer.

Just like regular maintenance on a car can prevent costly repairs or even the death of the car, regular maintenance on our bodies can help keep us from getting sick and dying at an early age. Being healthy is very important, so we need to take care of our bodies so we can be as healthy as possible and enjoy life while we live here on this earth.

*3 Girls, 3 Guys, And A Gremlin

———————————————–
My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
https://teddylynn.wordpress.com

© 2018 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6

THE POND, THE FORK, AND THE MUD PIES

I think was six years old, when we moved into our new house in Theo Mississippi. It was white with a shiny silver roof. It was in the same neighborhood where we had lived since I could remember. In the new house, my little sister and I each had our own bedroom. The living room in this house was bigger than in the house we had moved from, and we had a bathroom with a tub and water inside the house. We had hot water, too, so we no longer had to heat water to bathe in. We had moved up in the world. Our yard was about the same size as our old one but the layout was a bit different. We had more yard in the front but the side of the house was about the same distance away from the road that the front of our old house was, but it sat on a hill several feet higher than the road.

The house was much nicer, too. It had painted wood inside and nice, aluminum-framed, energy-efficient windows. It even had a storm house. There were several nice, big trees and one of them was a walnut tree. There were plum trees and persimmon trees and beautiful rose bushes all along the property next to the road. The landlord had a cornfield by the side of the driveway in front of the house and he told us we could get all the corn we wanted any time we wanted it. It was like a paradise.

We were excited about our new home, and so was our dog, Clete. I remember making mud pies there for the first time. Somebody gave us an Easy Bake Oven. It didn’t work, but we pretended it did. We made a grocery store and stocked it with empty containers that our grandmother saved for us when they were all used up. We had cereal boxes, oat boxes, milk cartons and jugs, butter bowls, and lots of empty cans. We would play store for hours.

One day, not long after we moved in, a good rain came. There was plenty of mud for some mud pies. I guess we got tired of that after a while. How many mud pies can a kid make anyway? We were just outside the bathroom window and the siding was made from sheets of something white with an orange peel texture. I just remember how pretty and white it was. I think I threw one of the mud pies and it stuck on the white wall. Then maybe my sister threw another one. The next thing I remember is both of us with our backs to the wall, bending over with our hands in the red clay mud, throwing it behind us between our legs, all over that pretty white wall.

When my grandmother saw what we had done she was more than a little upset. After the yelling and the lecture, she made us clean up the mess. We scrubbed as hard as we could for what seemed like forever but we just could not get it back to the pretty clean white that it was before. Our grandmother saw that we had done our best so she tried, but those stains never did come clean. They were still there six years later.

There was a pond on the other side of the small field behind the house but it was fenced in with barbed wire. We weren’t allowed to go there by ourselves, until several years later. I once got some water from there to take to school for science class. We looked at a drop of it under a microscope and saw a creature with a big head and huge horns. It looked like a bull with no legs. When I was older I went there by myself a couple of times but that was it. I never went back. It just wasn’t as exciting as I had imagined for all those years.

When we were older, I was annoying my sister and she got mad and threw some tea on me. I had a bad temper, and before I could think, I threw a fork at her and the points of the prongs stuck in the side of her head. I was sorry I did it when I realized how bad she could have been hurt. I could have even put her eye out.

Sometimes as I look back at my childhood, I remember some things that I’m not proud of. I’ve often wished that I could forget every bad thing that I’ve done and every bad thing that has ever happened in my life, but I realized that those bad experiences are part of what has made me who I am today. Testing and trials build character and how we react in any given situation tells us, as well as others, what kind of person we really are. We should learn from our mistakes and wrong choices. If nothing else, we should at least realize that we can’t make it on our own, and that prompts us to seek the help of our Creator.

So, when you look back at your past and remember things you wish you could forget, take a closer look at those things to see if you learned anything from them. If you didn’t, then examining them may help you to put everything in perspective and maybe you’ll be able to deal with your past a little bit better. Then, leave the past behind and hold on to the good memories and cherish each and every one of them. They are part of what made you who you are, too.

———————————————–
My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
https://teddylynn.wordpress.com

© 2018 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6

MY LITTLE SISTER

I was nine years old and I was at my aunt’s house with my two sisters and our grandmother when our mother popped in for a visit. I’m sure I already knew she was pregnant but that day was the first time I remember knowing. She stayed for a while and then she had to go. As she was leaving, I remember my aunt saying something like, “She’ll have that baby before the next full moon,” and I remember her confirming that she had been right when we heard that we had a new baby sister. We didn’t get to see the little rug rat as often as we wanted to but Momma would bring her to see us as often as she could and we would go visit them when we could.

My most memorable moment with her was when she was about two years old. Our Aunt Lee took us and our grandma to visit them. After several hours of playing and having loads of fun with her, it was time to leave. She was dirty all over from playing in the dirt and her face was the worst. She was giving everybody hugs and kisses and she came to me. We hugged and even though her face was covered with dirt, I was about to kiss her on the cheek. Just as I puckered up and came close to her face, she turned her head and kissed me right on my lips with the wettest, snottiest mouth you could imagine. I loved her, but I was spitting out the car window all the way home. It’s funny now and we’ve had several laughs about it over the years, but it wasn’t funny at all then.

When she was three years old, we moved next door to them. Then, we got to play with her all day, every day. We had lots of fun, but sometimes I guess we forgot that she was smaller and a bit more fragile than we were and she would get hurt. I liked pushing her in toy cars and on her tricycle. One day I noticed the extra dirt left over from putting our septic tank in the ground. It reminded me of one of the ramps that Evel Knievel would use to jump his motorcycle over different things. I couldn’t resist. I was thinking, “She has three wheels, she’ll be fine.” So, I told her to hold her feet up off the peddles, as I had before when I pushed her fast. Then I pushed her faster than ever, and I let her go with an extra shove just a few feet from the dirt mound. “Yes!” She jumped and landed on all three wheels without falling over or falling off the tricycle, BUT, she kept rolling for a bit too long. I saw her start wobbling and before I could get to her, she hit the front steps and fell over on them, and split her lip open. Momma wasn’t happy about that at all, so I felt bad for more than one reason. If you know what I mean.

We’re all grown up now and have children of our own, but I still have good memories of our childhood together and all the crazy fun we’ve had over the years. When I was seventeen, I wrote a song about her. It may not be a masterpiece, but here are the words.

SISTER MARY
by Teddy Lynn 
1985

VERSE 1
Eyes like diamonds, a smile bright as the sun
A dirty face from having too much fun
Snotty nose and a snotty kiss
I’m afraid someday I’ll be missing this

CHORUS
Sister Mary, I love you with all of my heart
We have to spend way too much time apart
I guess that makes me really appreciate you
Sister Mary, I’ll always be there for you

VERSE 2
Smiling from ear to ear reaching out for me
Your eyes full of tears when I have to leave
A heart full of love as big as the sky
Handfuls of kisses, but the days fly by

CHORUS…

BRIDGE
It won’t be long until you’re grown
You’ll marry and you’ll be gone
Everything may change and be rearranged
But my love for you will remain

CHORUS

Sister Mary © copyright 2010 Teddy Lynn – BMI

As I said, it’s not a masterpiece, that’s just how I expressed my feelings before blogging and social media came along. Siblings can sometimes have strained relationships and can sometimes even hate each other, but some share a great bond. I’m thankful for my little sister and the good relationship we’ve always had. Since we’ve grown up, we don’t see each other as often as we used to, but I still love her as much as I did when we were kids. There’s nothing like family, and there’s nothing like good memories, so cherish both, while you still have them.

———————————————–
My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
https://teddylynn.wordpress.com

© 2018 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6