BECCA9892003
Joined: 20 Jan 2005
Posts: 400
Location: Altoona, PA
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| Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 5:46 pm Post subject: A GOOD MESSAGE |
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The Big Wheel
In September 1960, I woke up one morning
with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket.
Their father was gone. The boys ranged
from three months to seven years; their sister was two.
Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared.
Whenever they heard his tires crunch on
the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds.
He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries.
Now that he had decided to leave, there
would be no more beatings, but no food either.
If there was a welfare system in effect in
southern Indiana at that time, I certainly
knew nothing about it. I scrubbed the kids
until they looked brand new and then put
on my best homemade dress. loaded them
into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job.
The seven of us went to every factory,
store and restaurant in our small town. No luck.
The kids stayed crammed into the car and
tried to be quiet while I tried to
convince whomever would listen that I was
willing to learn or do anything.
I had to have a job. Still no luck.
The last place we went to,
just a few miles out of town, was an old
Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been
converted to a truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel.
An old lady named Granny owned the place
and she peeked out of the window from time
to time at all those kids. She needed
someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at
night until seven in the morning. She paid
65 cents an hour and I could start that
night. I raced home and called the
teenager down the street that baby-sat for
people. I bargained with her to come and
sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night. She
could arrive with her pajamas on and the
kids would already be asleep. This seemed
like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal.
That night when the little ones and I
knelt to say our prayers, we all thanked
God for finding Mommy a job.
And so I started at the Big Wheel.
When I got home in the mornings I woke the
baby-sitter up and sent her home with one
dollar of my tip money--fully half of what
I averaged every night. As the weeks went
by, heating bills added a strain to my
meager wage. The tires on the old Chevy
had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak.
I had to fill them with air on the way to
work and again every morning before I could go home.
One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself
to the car to go home and found four tires
in the back seat. New tires! There was no
note, no nothing, just those beautiful
brand new tires. Had angels taken up
residence in Indiana?! I wondered.
I made a deal with the local service
station. In exchange for his mounting the
new tires, I would clean up his office. I
remember it took me a lot longer to scrub
his floor than it did for him to do the tires.
I was now working six nights instead of
five and it still wasn't enough. Christmas
was coming and I knew there would be no
money for toys for the kids.
I found a can of red paint and started
repairing and painting some old toys. Then
hid them in the basement so there would be
something for Santa to deliver on
Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry
too. I was sewing patches on top of
patches on the boy's pants and soon they
would be too far gone to repair.
On Christmas Eve the usual customers were
drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. These
were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim,
and a state trooper named Joe.
A few musicians were hanging around after
a gig at the Legion and were dropping
nickels in the pinball machine. The
regulars all just sat around and talked
through the wee hours of the morning and
then left to get home before the sun came up.
When it was time for me to go home at
seven o'clock on Christmas morning I
hurried to the car. I was hoping the kids
wouldn't wake up before I managed to get
home and get the presents from the
basement and place them under the tree.
(We had cut down a small cedar tree by the
side of the road down by the dump.)
It was still dark and I couldn't see much,
but there appeared to be some dark shadows
in the car-or was that just a trick of the
night? Something certainly looked
different, but it was hard to tell what.
When I reached the car I peered warily
into one of the side windows. Then my jaw
dropped in amazement. My old battered
Chevy was filled full to the top with
boxes of all shapes and sizes. I quickly
opened the driver's side door, crumbled
inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat.
Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the
top box. Inside was whole case of little
blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside
another box: It was full of shirts to go
with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some
of the other boxes. There was candy and
nuts and bananas and bags of groceries.
There was an enormous ham for baking,
and canned vegetables and potatoes. There
was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie
filling and flour. There was hole bag of
laundry supplies and cleaning items. And
there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll.
As I drove back through empty streets as
the sun slowly rose on the most amazing
Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing
with gratitude. And I will never forget
the joy on the faces of my little ones
that precious morning.
Yes, there were angels in Indiana that
long-ago December. And they all hung out
at the Big Wheel truck stop....
THE POWER OF PRAYER.
I believe that God only gives three answers to prayer:
1. "Yes!"
2. "Not yet."
3. "I have something better in mind."
God still sits on the throne, the devil is a liar. You maybe going
through a tough
time right now but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that
you cannot imagine. My instructions were to pick four people that I
wanted God to bless, and I picked you. This prayer is powerful, and
prayer
is one of the best gifts we receive.
There is no cost but a lot of rewards. Let's continue to pray for
one another. Here is the prayer.... Father, I ask You to bless my
friends, relatives and email buddies reading this right now. Show
them a new revelation of Your love and power.
Thank you, There is only one happiness in life, to love and be
loved. |
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chow
Joined: 22 Jan 2005
Posts: 2350
Location: Cornfield County, Indiana
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| Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:55 pm Post subject: |
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Nice post.
Some of our family members pull these little stunts off every year. It's really nice to see where the cash we hand them goes. I walked into my father in laws house one day, and I couldn't find the spare bedroom. His wife must have had a shopaholic attack! She has fun doing it too! |
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