Thursday, December 08, 2005

New format, same old me.


Here's a little story for the day.

Back when I was a little kid of about 7 or 8, my family "added on" to our very small house. The people I know now would call it "putting on an addition" or "doing a remodel". We just called it adding on. The men who did the work for us were friends as well, and went to the same little country church that we did. For a kid who grew up as far out in the country as I did, it was very exciting to have these guys coming to OUR house ever day, hammering and sawing.

One man in particular was my favorite. His name was Gene. Looking back, I realize that he was a few years younger than I am now when they worked for us. Gene would always take a few minutes out to tell me a new (and always corny) joke, or just to tease me a little. One of my very favorite things he would do was sit down at our piano and play and sing the song "Old Dan Tucker" for me. I would always crack up at the thought of someone washing "their face in a frying pan". Every chance I would get, I would beg him to play and sing it for me again. Many times, he would oblige me, which looking back probably didn't thrill my mom and dad too much, since he was supposed to be building our house, not serenading me.

This memory popped into my head when I heard the news that Gene's funeral was this past Wednesday. It seems he was suffering from some Alzheimer-type disorder and wandered outside, where he died of exposure. It made me very sad to hear that. I can only hope that God protected him in ways we can't understand, and allowed him a peaceful end.

The main reason I'm sharing this story, sad as it is, is for the simple reason that I hope when I leave this earth, someone will be prodded to remember some little kindness that I did for them. What a wonderful way to live on.

Although my friend Gene grew older and got sick, in my heart he's still young and singing to a little girl, just because she asked him to.

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

aw, damn! poor ol' gene...

Another moral of this story could be: always be nice to little kids. What you don't think is much might be a lot to them.

musicgeek said...

Poor ol' Gene is right...I'm such a wimp in the cold, that would not be my first pick in how I want to go.

What is the old joke? I plan to go peacefully in my sleep, just like my Grandpa. Not kicking and screaming like the people in his car...

Jennifer said...

heh! I always think its Steven Wright who said that, but i could be wrong.

Ragged Around the Edges said...

What a beautiful tribute.