As I arose yesterday,the fan in my room blew some hot air up my nose,and I was instantly transported back to a time when I was young, strong and healthy. I was doing it all, working, going to school, (collage courses) and keeping house, and raising a son.It was a fine, warm, windy day, and I was walking up to a house, clipboard in hand, bag over my shoulder, hair flying in the breeze. As I mounted the stairs to the house I slipped my car keys into the pocket of my blue suit jacket.I couldn't help but smile at the swirl of dogs, cats and kids visible through the glassed in screen door, and even though the inside door stood open, I knocked. I knew "Mary" was expecting me, yet still, since she wasn't right there to say come on in, it was best to be polite.A moment later she called me in, and I struggled through the welcoming committee, and after saying hello to all and sundry, found "Mary" in the breakfast nook, dawdling over her coffee.With the wreakage of breakfast with the children still all around her, she still had managed to clear a place for me, and there sat a glass of iced tea for me.It was always a pleasure to have her as my first call in the morning, because she always greeted me with a big smile, and remembered that I preferred tea to coffee in warm weather,and gave me a chance to take a good long pull off that cold drink before launching into whatever her problem was this time. I loved my job.I loved the people, I loved driving around the neighborhood in my little green Rambler and having them wave at me as I drove by, and calling out my name, and knowing theirs. I even loved stumping up to the office at noon time all wind-blown and sweaty, because then I could cool off,and sit down and eat my lunch, while I did my paperwork, before running off to classes,which I also loved.But what I loved about my job most was not just being there to hear the problems, but being able to do something about them.I transported people to the doctor, the dentist, the hospital, the well-baby clinic. I went door to door, knocking, asking strangers if they had any needs, and encouraged them to apply for any assistance they might be entitled to, and I took them to do that if necessary. I helped to start a pantry in the same church in which our satellite office was housed, by going from store to store, asking them not to throw out day old bread or such, but to donate it to our outreach office.Once a month my outreach office...all two of us, would take the whole day to pick 'em up and put'em down.Taking as many heads of families we could cram into our cars at one time, to the commodities storehouse to get their commodities and take them home, drop them and then go get some more and do the same thing all day long.Each family would get at least one, sometimes two boxes of canned goods,and some dried things,and on every trip back, we would have to drive a little more carefully, because the trunks were so loaded our tails were draggin'..the trunks, and on the floorboards of the back seat,and even under the seats. And, not everybody was able bodied enough to lift and carry those boxes, so guess who got the job doing that too? So, when we finally got back to the office to do our paperwork,and touch bases, get phone messages and so forth, our catch phrase was.." Is your tail draggin'?" "Yah! Is your tail draggin'?"
It always was. But then, I would drag it home, and there was always a happy homecoming in store, with a little guy dressed up in his buster browns, running to me, flinging himself upon me screaming "MOMMY!!" Hugging my neck so tight, sometimes I know my face turned red, but I would just hold him and move to the place where my chair sat and my fan was blowing and sit down and we would hug and talk and laugh, while I kicked off my shoes and loosened things, and then he would tell me all about his day in school, and what he and grandma did when he got home, and show me what he made for me,while I downed a quick glass of iced tea, and then it would be time to mop and shop.Cleaning the house real quick so I wouldn't have to come home to a mess, we would go to the store and pick up what we needed for dinner, go home and cook,and eat, watch a little t.v.and then it was time for his bath,and a story,a tuck and a prayer, and lights out.
Isn't it amazing how all of that can come flooding back to you in an instant, just from having some hot wind blow up your nose? All those precious memories, things you haven't thought of in years,in the time it takes you to straighten up from having gotten out of bed! And strangely, I know I was tired, but only in a vague way.The details that stand out in our memories aren't the things people stress over now. I don't recall what we ate that night, or whether or not my feet hurt, or what bills might have been hanging over my head. I only remember how much I enjoyed my work,and how much I loved my boy.What he was wearing, and the things I wore,and how his smile lit up my whole life.
OUI?
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