WHO DO YOU TRUST ?

A TIME OF AWAKENING…..

I was 6 years old, a little young for such an awakening, but a lesson well learned.

It was May, the weather was just beginning to feel like spring. We were out of school for the summer now, and we could stay outside longer and stay up later, even until after the street lights come on and it’s getting dark. A great life, right? Did you ever play “Kick the can or “Hide and seek”, “Cowboys and Indians”, and stuff that kids do when the days are longer and the nights are getting warmer. It was going to be a great summer. All the kids on my block, and there were seven of us, would be resuming our springtime rituals, going to the creek, fishing, swimming, playing in the dirt. It was just then when I was feeling like it’s never going to get any better, when mom woke me up.

This was my first Monday morning after school. “Guess what” she said, "we're going to see dad"! I was still trying to come awake, "What, when" ? I gasped. "Next Monday", she said. "Why"? I asked. To spend the summer with him", she said. "Me and you and sister and baby brother, we're all going on the train to West Virginia next Monday".

So it was, that this woman had just ruined my summer plans, We lived at Grandma’s house on Douglass Ave. In Memphis TN. But we visited my dad from time to time during the summer. Dad was a dragline operator who worked at various very large projects throughout the country, even some top secret government projects, but this trip would take us to West Virginia, a small town, I don’t even remember the name of the place.

But enough, this trip will not be a good thing, I will have to search out new friends and play with people I do not know, and besides, we cant carry my horse, (an old mop which Grandma had discarded, on which I had put a bridle and saddle). It was my favorite thing to do in the mornings, get the horse out after breakfast and go for a short ride in the neighborhood to see who was up. This trip would interrupt all of my plans for the summer. So I began to reject the idea that my summer would be ruined by this trip. I was perfectly happy at Mammaw’s house and I was not going to West Virginia, and that set my mood for the next couple of days.

Mom knew that I was a cowboy at heart and was always playing the scenes from cowboy movies I had seen, and she knew that I was a big “Red Ryder” fan, You know the red headed cowboy hero of the Red Ryder comic books and the Red Ryder BB gun. Wool worth’s department store had a “Red Ryder outfit for sale at the time, a red felt hat, a red vest, red chaps, red cow boy boots and a two gun red holster gun belt set, with shiny chrome cap pistols. And to top it off, a red bandanna which all cowboys wear around their neck. So it was that to abate my anger at the thought of this trip my mom and mammaw went shopping on the Friday before the trip and bought the whole outfit as a bribe to placate my anger....And it worked, I was ecstatic. This was it, we will go on this trip, and we will find new friends. I can always find a stick and make a new horse. Hurry up with the train I am ready to go try out my new “Red Ryder” outfit with some new friends.

So we arrived in West Virginia late in the evening on a Monday, dad was there to pick us up and we went directly to supper at a cafe near the apartment house, then off to the apartment and a bath and then to bed. I slept with the “Red Ryder” outfit under the bed. The morning found me groggy from the trip and the new living quarters, but I went awake pretty quickly, ate breakfast , the put on the whole “Red Ryder” outfit. Then out the door to the playyard. This was a big place, it had many apartment houses and all stacked together, An “Apartment complex” would be the proper name for this strange place. I had never before in my life seen so many places to live all bunched together. And kids, there were surely some kids here to play with, but I was early, Maybe they will come out later.

Sure enough, in about thirty minutes the kids were outside and ready to go. I went over to where they were, they seemed to have a leader by the name of “Chuckie”. He was about an inch or two taller than me and talked sort of fast and rough. There were five of them, I spoke to Chuckie first. “What are ya’ll playin” I asked. Chuckie replied, “Who are you? I said “I’m Earl” “What do you want”? Chuckie asked. “Do ya’ll know how to play Cowboys, n, Indins” I asked, “Naw we play cops and robbers” he replied. “Well can I play”, I asked timidly. Chuckie replied “Naw we already chose sides”, “Well could I be the sheriff I asked”? “Sure”, he said, We need a jail keeper, you just sit here and we’ll bring the crooks to jail, and you can lock’em up”, OK, but where is the jail”, I asked. “That hockey box over there , thats the jail, you just gotta keep’em in it. He said. “OK, so where are your guns”? I asked, we got some an we make some out of sticks. 

That was it, I was to be the sheriff. Boring, just sitting there watching as they went about running hiding and shooting at each other. “cops and robbers” was a boring game.Soon all the robbers had been caught and we re assembled for a new start, I suggested that we change to “cowboys n’ indins” and Chuckie said O.K. who are the cowboys and who are the indians? I made some choices and soon we had three apiece, three cowboys and 3 indians. Everybody was taking part. The indians went to hide and the cowboys would go and hunt them down, an shoot e’m. This went on for about an hour, we were having fun, and I was the focal point of the game because I had the “Red Ryder” outfit on. That made me the hero. 

After another round, of about fifteen minutes, Chuckie made a good suggestion, the cowboys should now switch to indians and the indians would now be the cowboys. Sounded right to me so that was how it came about that Chuckie asked to borrow the “Red Ryder” outfit. That seemed right to me so I let him have the boots, the chaps, the vest and the two guns and red holsters, and the hat. But I kept the red bandana. Chuckie was O.K. with that. So the next thing was we “indins”went to hide. Little did I know what was about to happen, in fact when I went to hide, I wanted to be well hidden, so they would not find me, so I went off the playground to go behind some fifty gallon drumb garbage cans, just off the property, in a field across the railroad tracks. Ha! This was a good hiding place, and of course my accolmplices found good spots too. This was too easy, I could see the other side looking everywhere for us. They found two of us, and I was all that was left. Looks like I was gonna be the best hidden indin ever. 

Then about ten minutes passed, and I could tell, there was no activity. So I came out of hiding and decided to give up. But where was everybody? They were gone! “Chuckie”! I called out, “Chuckie”, where are y’all at ?” I hollered. There was no answer...after about thirty minutes of looking and calling out, I decided that they had given up trying to find me, so I went home. Mom asked me where I had been and I told her all about my new friends and the game we played. Then she asked about the “Red Ryder” outfit. 

There I was standing there in fron of my mother,  barefoot with a red bandana around my neck, a white undershirt and my short pants on, crying now because I just realized that now “Chuckie” was “Red Ryder” he had my new “Red Ryder" outfit, boots, guns, chaps, and all , and I had nothing. So we scoured the neighborhood me crying and Mom hollering “Chuckie”. Had I done too good a job of hiding? Or had the “new friends” been clever in the stealing of my clothes. Which is it you may ask? I prefer to think of it as a good job of hiding that I did. Mom thinkds otherwise. What do you think? Well it took a couple of days but I never again saw even one of those kids. And after speaking with other residents in the complex, we were informed by a woman who lived beside the play yard, that they were from the other side of the tracks, a perfect theft it was, And I had difficulty believing it. And I got a whipping.The lesson? Accept that everyone has good intentions, but trust no one to have them. Everyone has an agenda....believe it because it is true. END

Who’s The Racist ?

Who’Who’s The Racist ?

Life is hard and then you die. There is no promise of perfection, unity, equality or anything else. You are born into the world as it exists. You may be born White, Black, Red, or Yellow, or anything in between. The world changes from day to day, it is what it is, on that day, and it will always will be such. People are different. Many people are born into this world into circumstances that no one in their right mind would choose, and no one is in charge of what circumstance they are born into. The races are all prejudicial, none are exempt. anyone who would deny this has never read the Bible, or caught up on their history, their background or their historic lifestyle (how previous generations lived) all races are prejudicial. The Chinese, the Japanese, the European, the White, the Black, the early settlers of the Americas, (American Indians), Indonesians, Hispanic, Jewish, Mexican, African and any other race you may want to drag into this matter. All have their prejudices. There is no perfect race in any form in our world. God created them all, and it shall always be so that they (we altogether) are one race, THE HUMAN RACE, all equal, all have sinned and fall short. Maybe somewhere in the universe there is a perfect race of beings, but we have yet to find it. To claim that one group or ethnicity is racist is ridiculous, we are all given to make choices, It is a God given right, our decision to choose. Do not think that you are immune to it. Just as your choice of drink, food or automobiles is based on your likes and dislikes, so it is that in all of life you must make choices, and that goes for your likes and dislikes of people as well. It is true that most certainly we all can enjoy different drinks, foods, and automobiles, and as well, our choice of friends, (close and or distant) is ours to make. And it is every day that our path of life brings us to the matter of choice, every day. Shall I go to work, or stay home, go to the doctor or not, drive or walk, sleep or stay awake, life is made up of choices, and everyone on earth has to make them, from the first awakening of morning to the last moment before death. Even in our dreams, there are choice moments, and moments of angst. So shut up about the matter of racism. Being an American does not make on a racist, nor does being white black or any other color of your skin make one a racist. A racist is one who continually spouts the differences between the races, and how those differences affect other races. Differences??? Yes there are differences, ask anyone on this earth and they will tell you that no two races are the same. There are differences, and those differences force us to make choices, we all do things differently, no one does their decision making the same as anyone else. It is a matter of choice. You too, just like your neighbor make choices every moment of every day. That is why Jesus came to this earth, to put an end to the matter of wrong choices. Starting with Adam and Eve, we all make wrong choices. The Parable of The Good Samaritan is the perfect story of race relationships. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is that we love God with all our heart, mind and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. Until one is able to do that, one cannot claim to be race neutral, and if you are not race neutral then you ARE racist. So you think I am wrong? Then answer me this. Would you give your life hanging on a cross until you die to save your neighbors soul? If you cannot honestly answer that quickly without stopping to consider it, then tell me, For whom would you be willing to die? We are all faced with choices, some are great and some are small, yet all are choices. I choose my friends based on the truth of their character, so do not lay on me the word racist unless you are willing to speak it of yourself. Some of my friends are of "another" race, I am of "another" race, and being of the human race, there are people of every race creed and color with whom I would rather not associate, but I do not hate them, I may indeed hate what they do or say, or even how they speak and conduct their lives. But I make allowances for those things, and I just leave those people alone. Does that make me racist? My preferences in vegatables is similar, some of them are distasteful to me. but I do not hate them. The matter of race relations is here to stay. I hate the word racist, and I do not like for people to use that word in my presence, but if they want to speak of it, then I must allow that they have the right to speak it. I do not like it, nor do I approve of the use of it, but I do not hate the person who speaks it. But alas, it is a hate filled word and because we are human we still know how to apply the word to others, but not ourselves. So until that final Day of Judgment when God comes to separate the sheep and the goats, choice is still relevant, God is the final judge of the soul of all men. and even then, choice is there, but this time it’s God’s to make. Do not mention racist to me of anyone, for until YOU are the judge, You might just be the racist.