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.

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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.

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THREE FRIENDS, THREE TREES, AND A CONFESSION

I was twelve years old and I lived about a quarter of a mile from my best friend. There were three homes, a church, and a patch of woods between us. There was a valley in the woods and some really tall trees. One day at school, my friend told me he had found a big vine in the woods and had been swinging on it. He wanted me to meet him there after school and have some fun swinging. So I did.

He brought his neighbor with him who went to another school and we all took turns swinging on the vine. At first, I was careful because I was a bit nervous. The hill where we were swinging was pretty steep and when we swung out we were very high off the ground. Then I got a little braver and was swinging further out and higher each time.

Then it happened. I swung too far. There were three trees side by side in a V shape. My shoulder hit one of them and spun me around and I slammed into another one with my back. It knocked the breath out of me and my hands just let go of the vine. I fell into the valley and hit the ground with a thud.

I got up as quickly as I could. It was all I could do to move. I could barely breathe and I was in pain. I just wanted to lay down and cry. All that kept me from doing just that was the fact that I was embarrassed. I didn’t want my friend and his friend to think I was weak so I acted as tough as I could. I did muster up the courage to tell them it hurt a little and I needed to go home.

I could have been hurt worse than I thought. I could have had internal bleeding. I hit that tree pretty hard and I fell a long distance. I hurt for several days, but I didn’t dare tell anyone what had happened, especially my grandmother. I was afraid she would never let me leave the house again.

Shame and embarrassment often prevent us from admitting that we’re not invincible. It also makes us try to hide things we’ve done that were wrong. Even though we know God sees everything we do, too often, we refuse to even admit to him that we’ve sinned, just like Adam and Eve, after they sinned in the garden of Eden. They actually tried to hide from God when he came to visit them.

Isaiah tells us that “sin separates us from God,” but John said, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (Isaiah 59:2; 1 John 1:9). Have you ever heard “Confession Is Good For The Soul?” Well, it really is. Forgiveness is an awesome gift from God, so the next time you sin, and you feel so ashamed that you want to run and hide from God, don’t. We don’t have to be afraid to come to him. We have his promise that he will forgive us.

We know he loves us, and we know he wants what’s best for us so why is it so hard sometimes to just turn to him and confess our sins and say “I’m sorry?” Sometimes it may be pride, but I think it’s usually just shame and embarrassment. We have to get past that and learn to admit when we sin and ask for forgiveness, immediately. The sooner we do, the sooner we can be forgiven and get back to the safety of his arms. It’s truly the best place to be.

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THE FLOOR, THE CAMERA, AND THE SANDWICH

I’ve already told you about my oldest memory, well I think this is my second oldest one. I remembered playing on the living room floor with a small toy car or truck in that little house my grandma was renting from the Richardsons in Theo, Mississippi. They also owned one of the little country stores that were there at the time.

I remember rolling a small ball around on the same floor. The floor wasn’t level so the ball would roll by itself. All I had to do was place it at the high point of the floor and let it go, then it would roll a couple of feet to hit the baseboard, and then come to a stop in the corner. I recall doing that over and over again. It never got old.

I also remember that part of the linoleum was torn back from the wall revealing another layer of older linoleum that was not torn as far from the wall as the top layer. The edges had been tacked down with those little black tacks. The raw wood floor was made of narrow boards, probably four or five inches wide.

Even though we moved from there when I was six or seven, I can still see much of the house in my mind. We have several pictures of the outside but I don’t think there were ever any taken on the inside. My grandmother had one of those old square shutter cameras without a flash. That’s the camera she used until she died. It had a viewfinder bubble, so you had to hold the camera down in front of you to see the image you wanted to take. Then you pushed a small handle down with your thumb to snap the picture. Then you had to manually turn a knob on the side to roll the film into position to take the next picture. They needed plenty of light to take a good picture so to get the best picture quality, outside on a sunny day was ideal.

The siding on the house was made of the same stuff roofing shingles are made from today but it was in big sheets. The roof was covered with corrugated sheets of rusty tin, and there was a small porch at the front of the house where my grandmother would often sit and watch us play in the front yard. We never got too far away from her. She was our protection and our lifeline and I guess we knew it even at such a young age.

In the backyard, we had a small garden in the summer. I remember almost stepping on a snake in that garden and being pulled back by my aunt just in time. When my grandmother first told me the story of Peter Rabbit, that was the garden I pictured in my mind. There was a clothesline strung between two trees at the end of the garden.

One day as she was hanging out clothes, I noticed a knot on a tree, about a foot up from the ground. I ran and jumped on the knot with one foot, then pushed myself off of it and landed back on the ground. I liked that, so I did it again. My grandmother said to me, “Stop before you get hurt.” I thought to myself, “Just one more time.” As I jumped up one last time, my foot slipped off the knot, and instead of bouncing off the tree, my chin slid down the tree, ripping the skin off in several strips. Owhhhhhhhh! I still remember the pain and embarrassment.

Closer to the house there was a spot where the wood for the heater was piled each winter. One winter we had a pile of slabs from the sawmill. I remember picking up boards about two feet long and throwing them higher onto the woodpile. That was also the spot where we would later tie our dog named Clete that we got from our uncle.

It was cold outside, but we were usually pretty warm in our little house, thanks to my grandmother, and our little wood heater, both provided by God, by the way. There was a pan to put the ashes into before carrying them out of the house when the heater would get too full. It always stayed in front of the heater to catch anything that might fall out while stoking the fire or putting more wood in.

I don’t remember where we had been that day, but we had just come home. My grandmother started a fire and put a couple of chairs in front of the heater so we could get warmed up while she fixed us something to eat. Soon, she brought me and my sister each a sandwich on a plate, and then went back into the kitchen.

Now, I never remember wasting food unless it tasted really bad, or unless I found a hair in it, but my little sister was a picky eater. If she didn’t want it, she got rid of it. She took one of her pieces of bread off her sandwich and threw it in the ash pan. Then she folded her other piece in half around her bologna slice.

When our grandmother came back from the kitchen, she saw that piece of bread in the ashpan. For some reason, she slapped me on the leg as she asked me, “Why did you throw that piece of bread in there?” I started crying. I think it was more because she accused me of something I didn’t do, more than the actual slap itself. When I explained what had actually happened, she apologized. After I stopped crying, I finished my sandwich and went on with my life.

I tell you that story because I remember it, not because I hold a grudge against my grandmother. She wasn’t perfect. She made mistakes, just like all parents do, but she loved us and she did the best she could. I don’t hold any grudges against my mom and dad for not raising us either. Too often, people can’t move on in life because they refuse to forgive their parents for the mistakes they made in raising them, but holding on to anger will eat you up inside and you’ll be a miserable person. It robs you of God’s blessings and his forgiveness.

Jesus said if we don’t forgive others, then God won’t forgive us (Matthew 6:14-15). If we’re not forgiven then we won’t make it to heaven, and that would be sad. So if you’re holding on to some hurt because of something someone has done to you, forgive them and be free from that burden Give it to Jesus and move on. Instead of dwelling on hurtful memories, choose to remember good times. The more time we spend with the good memories, the less time we’ll have to think about the bad ones. Try it. It really helps.

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THE LIZARD, THE SNAKE, AND THE SEA DRAGON

More memories from my early days at Gift school have resurfaced. I remember getting up in the mornings, getting ready for school, and getting on the bus in the winter while it was still dark. My first-grade teacher’s name was Miss Gay, and her mother, Mrs. Minnie V was my second, and third-grade teacher. Both the second and third-grade classes were in the same room together, so I don’t really remember which grade I was in the year I’m telling you about. I just know it was one of those two.

It was the first day of school and the bus stopped at a house where it had not stopped the year before. A small kid was waiting there at the end of the driveway. His dad was waiting there with him to see him off to school on his first day. He was just starting the first grade, and evidently, he was a little nervous about riding the bus. He started crying, and screaming, “I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna go.” He became hysterical. His dad tried to calm him down and convince him to get on the bus, but it didn’t do any good. After a few minutes of chaos, he told the bus driver that he would bring the kid to school, and we moved on to the next stop.

Every morning when we arrived at the school, the bus would ease up to the driveway and stop in front of the school. It was a big red, brick building with wide concrete steps that went up to the second floor to a wider concrete porch with big columns. The doors opened into a big auditorium with a tongue-and-groove hardwood floor that creaked and squeaked when we walked on it. There was a stage on the opposite wall that faced the front door, and classrooms on each side. The Principle’s office, and the storage room, for the chairs and other miscellaneous stuff, shared the wall with the stage.

I can recall several events that were held in that auditorium. We had our Christmas plays there, and our song practicing for the plays. Parent’s night and graduations were held there. Then there was that Fall Festival with a King and Queen contest that my sister was crowned queen in. When it was raining or was too cold to be outside, the second through eighth-grade students could play and hang out in that big area.

One day we had two special guests in the auditorium that many of us were excited to see. A group of people brought a giant lizard and a giant snake to show off. I don’t remember exactly what kind either of them was, but they were both the same color, a dark shiny black, which I found pretty interesting. The lizard looked just like the snake, but without legs, and it was shorter.

They put a table in front of the stage and sat the lizard on it and let us come up and pet it. Then they took the snake and stretched it out to show us how long it was. From what I can remember, I would say it was probably ten to twelve feet long and about as big around as a basketball. It took three men to pick it up. It was huge.

I remembered hearing about a snake that was so big it swallowed a baby whole. I wondered if it could have been that snake. After I was older I realized that was not the only large snake in the world, and it was certainly not the biggest. I’ve since heard of snakes swallowing grown men and large animals, such as deer and cows.

When I was young, I always loved seeing the different creatures that God has created, especially the ones I had never seen before. I miss that feeling of seeing a creature for the first time, but once in a while, I get to see one I’ve never seen before. I recently saw the most amazing creature I have seen in many years. We went to the zoo for the blue-millionth time. I’ve seen all those old broken down animals and all the same kinds of creatures that they have had for the last twenty years, but it’s fun to watch our grandson as he sees them live for the first time.

He loves to fish, so we went into the aquarium building. We looked at the fish, of course. There are so many fish that are so beautiful and colorful that seeing them never gets old. Then we saw the water turtles and the water snakes and eels, and all the strange creatures that live in the water. But then, I saw something I don’t remember ever seeing in my whole life. It was a sea dragon. Its head reminded me a little of a seahorse. It was beautiful. I was so amazed. I couldn’t look away. Even more amazing, it was just sitting there in one spot without moving. As I examined it I saw little fins moving to keep it suspended in one spot. It was so awesome. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. When we got home I looked it up on the internet and found that there are several different kinds and many variations, both in shape and color. Very fascinating.

God has created some amazing creatures in this world, and there are so many. I know I haven’t seen them all, and I probably never will in my lifetime, but one day, after God wipes the curse of sin from the earth and recreates it, we will have eternity to enjoy all of his creations (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1; 2 Peter 3:13).

In 1 Corinthians 2:9, the Apostle Paul, quoting the Prophet Isaiah said, But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the minds of man, the things that God has prepared for those who love him (Isaiah 64:4; 1 Cor. 2:9).

I have a very big imagination, and I can imagine some pretty amazing things, but God is telling us that nothing we could ever imagine could ever come close to the things that God has prepared for us. That’s an amazing thought just by itself, so think about it for a while.

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ASLEEP ON THE JOB

If you’ve been following my blog or read my books, you know I’m not one of those Christians who pretend they’ve never done anything wrong. We all have a past, and at some point, we've all said and done things that God has told us not to. The Bible says we've all sinned (Romans 3:23) and none of us are righteous (Romans 3:10-12). We like to think we're good on some level, but without Jesus, we're nothing. Ronnie Freeman sings a song that says, “The only thing that’s good in me is Jesus.” That's a profound statement, and no matter what we like to think about ourselves, it's a very true statement.

God tells us in Hebrews 8:12, that after we come to Jesus and have been forgiven for our sins, he doesn't remember them anymore. That doesn't mean that God loses his memory. He says the same thing in Isaiah 43:25. It simply means that he doesn't hold our past against us.

Satan, on the other hand, does hold our past against us. He uses our past in any way he can, to hurt us, and keep us from moving forward. God forgives us, but he can use our past to bless others, both by their learning from our experiences and by us using what we learn to help them. People can come to trust and believe in God when they see what he's done in our lives, the way he has changed us, and the things he's brought us through. That’s one reason why I tell people about my past. I want others to know they're not alone in their struggles and that there is hope in Jesus.

Everything that has happened in my past hasn't always been bad. I've had many good things happen to me, lots of funny things, and I've had a lot of good, clean, fun times with my family and friends throughout my whole life. I guess I write more about the negative things because I want to share the lessons I learned from them, but I want to find better ways to share more of my positive experiences.

As I said before, I left home when I was sixteen years old, and for about three years I did whatever I wanted to. I did whatever I thought was fun and entertaining. I certainly wasn't living a moral, or healthy lifestyle. I was very unhappy. I wanted to do better so I made several changes. One of them was that I started going to church again.

That’s when I met Jesus and gave my life to him. He gave me a new job that I really loved, with an awesome supervisor who was a godly man. It's amazing how God can change a person's life if we just allow him to. Many of us are so self-destructive that we get in the way of God's blessings. We want what we want and often refuse to even consider doing what God wants us to do. Jesus said if we will first seek his kingdom and his righteousness, then he'll give us all that we need. I started seeing that in my life as I submitted my will to my heavenly Father, and the joy in my heart was unbelievable.

I was still young, and I still liked to go out and have fun, only now it was all good, clean fun with some of my younger cousins and other young people from the church. I was really enjoying my life for the first time in years. We had services several nights each week. We had Sunday services, prayer meetings, prayer service, youth night, and choir practice. Many times we would go out to eat before or after church. We would take somebody home or just ride around the town.

My new job was farther away than what I was used to, so I had to get up pretty early to get to work on time. Some days I would be really tired by lunchtime. I was reading the Bible every chance I got, so that's what I would do while I ate lunch if I didn’t fall asleep. One day, I was so tired that all I wanted to do was sleep during lunch. I had an hour, so I set the alarm on my watch, went into the sample room, and lay down on the sofa. As soon as I closed my eyes, I was out.

When lunch was over and I hadn't returned to the line, my supervisor and the floater started looking for me. When they found me, I was still in a deep sleep. They thought it would be funny to wake me up by screaming and beating on something. When I actually woke up, I was standing in the corner of the room holding my chest, and they were both laughing so hard they could barely breathe. As startling as it was at first, I'm glad they did it that way, rather than yelling and cursing, or firing me like some supervisors might have done. We all had a good laugh and went back to work. Thanks, Bobby and Al. I miss you guys.

Memories are funny things. They have the power to change our mood in a variety of ways. Some memories can make us sad, some can make us angry, and some can make us smile, laugh, and bring us all kinds of joy. We should try our best to keep the good memories on top of the pile. They can help us to be happier as we realize how blessed we really are.

Related Topic: Once Saved, Always Saved

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MY SECOND CAR; WORSE THAN THE FIRST

I told you about my first car several weeks ago. I wish I could tell you I had a better experience with my second car, but it is what it is; Adventure and adversity. I had a 19-inch TV I had either bought or acquired in a trade. I don’t really remember. My uncle, being a master trader, convinced me to buy a CB radio from him, and offer both the TV and the radio in trade to a man he knew, for a car he had. It was a 1975 Mustang. You heard me right; a 1975 Mustang. The ugliest Mustang body style ever made. It was red with a white rag-top, with dulling paint. It had not been well taken care of. It was sitting in his yard just rusting away. It had all kinds of problems, but my uncle assured me that he would help me get it going. He was a master mechanic, and I knew he could do it, so I made the deal, and started home. Immediately I noticed the smell of burning oil. The left side of the rear was lower than the right. The tires were bald and it smoked, but I had a car.

We got the car to my uncle’s house, and he looked it over to see what it needed. It needed to be jacked up, and a new car slid under it. That’s a funny way of saying it was a pile of junk. The motor was shot, and the transmission was on its way. The body had problems, and it was really unsafe. Well, there was nothing I could do but park it in the yard, and let it rust, or drive it until it wouldn’t go anymore.

My dad told me about an old car he had owned when he was young. It was a mess, and he couldn’t keep it running, so when he got it going one last time, he drove it into the woods toward the river as fast as he could. He ran over briers, bushes, saplings, and trees until he could go no further. He then got out, and walked away, leaving the car there to rot. He laughed when he told me an older man he knew found the car, drug it out of the bottom, fixed it, and drove it for several years.

As much trouble as I was having with my car, I wanted to do something similar, but I was thinking more along the lines of driving it off a cliff. I imagined jacking it up in the back just enough to get the tires off the ground. Then I would start it up, place a large stone on the gas peddle, and push it off the jack. In my mind I could see the car burning out, slinging dirt everywhere as it flew off the cliff, and then exploding into a ball of flames as it tumbled to its resting place, or rather, its rusting place. There were a few snags in making my fantasy a reality, though. One, I didn’t really have a cliff anywhere close. Two, I was sure it would be a crime to do something like that, especially if I didn’t own the property where this imaginary event may occur, and three, I didn’t have a large stone for the gas pedal.

In reality, I didn’t really have the courage to actually destroy the thing, so I just drove it around, visiting family, until it would die. My cousin rode around with me, and when it would die, he would jump in the driver’s seat, and I would push the car. He would let out on the clutch, and hopefully, it would crank.

One time when it died, we were going up a hill. He got behind the wheel, and let the car roll backward. He couldn’t get it to go into gear to crank it. He was so focused on the gear stick, he didn’t realize he was about to go off the road into the river. At the last minute, he turned just in time to avoid the water and ended up in some bushes.

Another day, we were off on an old gravel back road, and the thing died. It was flooded out, and wouldn’t start. The road was pretty flat, and the gravel was thick, so there was nothing we could do but call someone. We called my uncle, and he headed our way. There was only one problem; He was drinking. When he got there, he didn’t have a chain, or a tow strap with him, so he said he would push us. Now, the reason one side of my car was lower than the other was it had air shocks, and the left one had a leak. I had aired it back up, and now the rear of the car was pretty high. It looked kind of like a dragster. When my uncle started pushing us, the bumpers seemed to match up, but as he drove faster, my bumper slid on top of his, lifting the back wheels off the road. I couldn’t get the car started that way.

Having not been driving long, I was pretty nervous anyway, but knowing my uncle was drinking, I was downright scared. As he accelerated, we became terrified. We wanted him to stop, but we had no way of letting him know that. For a minute the bumper of my car was stuck on top of the bumper of his car, but when he stepped on his brakes we came loose. I tried engaging the clutch, but it was useless. The car wouldn’t start. The tires just kept sliding on the gravel.

Finally, we came to a stop in the middle of the road. When we looked back to see where my uncle was, we saw him speeding toward us, apparently with no intention of stopping. My cousin screamed, “He’s gonna hit us.” That’s exactly what he did, and we were going again, with the back wheels up in the air. Finally, the car started, and I put the pedal to the medal, hoping he would quickly realize the thing was running on its own. I drove straight to his house and parked that death trap for a while, to let my nerves settle, and I didn’t start it back up until I knew he was sober.

Another time the car died, and we couldn’t get it to start at all. We were on the road just outside my uncle’s sister’s house. We went to call him on her CB radio. She wasn’t home, but her son was, and he was drunk. He let us make the call, but I believe my uncle was sleeping, or not at home, or something. I don’t recall just why but, he wasn’t coming anytime soon, so I told my cousin, we would just have to push the car home. I jokingly said, something like, “Come on and help us push this car home,” to my cousin’s cousin. He was the guy who was drunk. He just looked at me, and I went on out to my car. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, there he was. He was acting insane, cursing, and saying all kinds of crazy stuff. He wanted to fight about what I had said. I told him I was only joking, but he wouldn’t stop. I was scared, but thank God for sending help. One of his friends came along and convinced him that I didn’t mean anything by it.

I really wanted to get my car away from there now, as quickly as possible, and I wasted no time getting it rolling. I stood up on the foot threshold and steered the car until it slowed down, then I would step off, and get it going again as fast as I could, then I would jump back up on the threshold again. I did this a couple of times, then when the car started slowing down again, I stepped down one last time.

The car was rolling much faster than I thought, so when my feet hit the ground that time, it was like they stuck to the pavement. Down I went on my left knee. It hit hard, and it’s still damaged to this day. I got up as quickly as I could to see where the car and my cousin were. He was still standing on the threshold of the passenger side. The car was still rolling with no driver. Just then it left the road and rolled up a steep embankment. It came to an abrupt stop as it hit something; Either a light pole or a fence post. My cousin fell onto the ground, and I believe the car would have rolled over on him if the door had not been open. It stuck in the ground beside him at a ninety-degree angle, preventing it from crushing him. I finally gave up and got rid of that thing, and I was glad I did. I was better off without it. It was just too much trouble.

My experiences with that car remind me of sin. We think it’s something we want, and if it’s not exactly what we want, we think we can fix it. We keep playing around with it even after it has caused us problems, and even after it almost kills us. In Job chapter 1, God said that Job was a righteous man, and he avoided evil. We need to be like Job. We need to learn to identify sin and avoid it. We will be better off if we never get caught up in it in the first place.

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TADPOLES, MOLES, AND EASTER EGGS

Wow! I can’t believe all the memories I have stored in my brain from just five years at Gift school. I could probably write a book, but for now, I just want to share these memories, and maybe encourage someone else, or make someone smile.

I remember my first-grade teacher’s name was Miss Gay. Her mother, Mrs. Minnie V. was my second, and third-grade teacher. Both the second and third-grade classes were in the same room together. I never thought that was weird back then because we saw schools on TV where kids from every grade were all in one room.

I had a lot of fun at Gift, and I enjoy remembering those times once in a while. There was lots of water around the school, and there were lots of frogs and tadpoles. I told my grandmother about them, and how they turned into frogs, but she didn’t believe it. I guess that seemed like evolution, and she didn’t believe in that, and rightly so. That’s not proof of evolution, by the way. It’s nothing more than a frog egg developing into a frog without the confines of a shell, as many other egg-laying creatures have.

Anyway, I found a big can from the lunchroom, collected some tadpoles in some water, and took them home. I wanted my grandmother to witness them growing into frogs. Well, low and behold, my little sister happened upon my makeshift aquarium. She didn’t know my plan. I don’t even know if she knew what was in the can, but she poured the water out, and the baby frogs along with it. Ugggh! All that trouble to get a can, and getting the tadpoles in it, and all the trouble getting it home on the bus, without spilling it. All that effort down the drain. But, I loved my sister, so I forgave her.

Another time there was a mole in the schoolyard, and we could see it moving beneath the ground. We wanted to see what a mole looked like, so we chased him down, and cut him off at both ends of his trail. One kid dug from one side, and I dug from the other until we had it cornered. Then we removed the last bit of dirt, and there it was. We didn’t get much of a look at it, though. It ran out of the hole and disappeared under the leaves. It was so fast. All that time, wasted, and we still didn’t know exactly what a mole looked like.

In the first grade, we got to watch a movie once in a while in the afternoon. Sometimes we got to watch TV for class, and I remember watching Sesame Street, and The Electric Company during recess sometimes, especially when it was raining, or cold outside.

I remember one Easter, it was wet and nasty outside, so we hid the eggs in the classroom. We hunted until the teacher thought we had found them all. Turns out, we stopped just one egg short. Later on that summer, someone found the egg behind something on a shelf. We were so excited. You would have thought we had found a hidden treasure. We all knew it was rotten by then, but we had to see how bad. We took it outside and gathered around the student who had the egg. He threw it on the ground, and before you could say Ty-Con-De-Rogga, the smell penetrated our nostrils, and the whole class erupted in a torrent of screams and yells. Gagging, running, and falling followed. Finally, the teacher restored order and got us all safely back inside. What a beautiful memory. I can almost smell it now, as I think about it.

Well, that’s as far as I want to go down Memory Lane today. It’s always fun to visit those places and savor those memories. It’s good to know that I have so many good memories to reflect on in this world of growing turmoil. I pray that someday when we look back at our past, there will only be good times to remember.

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© 2016 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

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