Beech Tree News Network

Few things equal the pleasure of crawling back between the warm bed covers after having left them minutes before. At my age I get to enjoy this several times each night . . . if you get my drift.

Even more pleasurable is when this happens around day-break, when back in my other life, I was getting up to go to one job or another . . . for some 40 years or more. Now I just praise the Lord, roll back over and pull up that good warmth and drift back off . . . thinking about that first good cup of coffee I'll have later - much later.

I'm not one who thinks it's a sin to "lay up in bed." Sometimes I hear a car over on the road and I think, "They're going to work; I'm going back to sleep." It's Biblical - "There is nothing better for a man that he should enjoy the good of his labor; it is a gift of God," Ecc. 3:13.

Times at night when I hear rain pounding on my tin roof I thank HIM for a warm house away from the wet and cold . . . little things. I guess we are more inclined to think about them as get along down the trail.

Too, aren't old friends delightful to bump in to on occasion? I ran into one recently. We revisited a court case that happened in Bowling Green in 1948. "That was the only time I skipped a whole day of classes in college," he said, "I went to hear that trial." It was a murder case involving a faculty member at Western.

Don't miss people along the way. Each person we have known over the whole of our lives has in some way, large or small, become a part of who we are. A person who has lived to himself comes to a sad end. We've all known them.

Walter was NOT a self-person. He loved people and people loved him. He visited with and exchanged pleasantries with everybody. Walter pushed himself around in a special-built wagon, from which he sold pencils. Walter had cerebral palsy.

One of the local banks graciously allowed Walter to sort of "headquarter" in their lobby, where he met and visited with the patrons coming and going. He talked news, weather, and baseball - he loved baseball. He was a day-brightener. Nearly everybody took time to stop and say a word to Walter. He could have been known as the "official greeter," because he was just that.

In good weather Walter traveled all over Muhlenberg County. He would show up at just about any function. Folks would see him beside the road, stop and pick him and his wagon up and they'd be on their way . . . most times it would be in a truck, where he could put his wagon in the bed.

You always saw him in town on County Court day, which was also Jockey day (trade day).

When Walter grew old and could no longer push his wagon, he went to a local nursing home. His room was across the hall from a local shister, who was a wheeler-dealer . . . pretty well-off. There was always a stream of visitors in and out of Walter's room. The crook seldom got any.

In the end, who WON?

"I've got a hundred and sixty acres in the valley . . . got an old stove there that'll cook three squares, a bunk where I can lay me down to rest . . ."

THAT'S ENOUGH.

Kindest regards . . .