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The Journey

  It was the longest, most difficult journey of my life. It was my second mission trip to Haiti. I was with a team of about 10 other people. We traveled from near Port au Prince to the Mole St. Nicholas area in the back of a large truck. There was a wooden bench on each side. The bed of the truck was surrounded by a large metal frame. Look up a Haitian tap tap and you will get the idea. We were told that the trip would take about 6 hours. We rode for 17 hours in the back of that truck. The roads were terrible. There was a metal bar located just above my beltline that hit my back hundreds of times on the journey. As the day wore on, the hot Haiti sun began to heat up that metal cage. It was almost unbearable. And that was before we made it to the desert. There was sand everywhere for hours. As we met other vehicles, the dust coated us. It got on and in everything. The roads were so rough that the metal cage began to fall apart. Every time we stopped, we were told it would take 4 m...
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All the Parts Matter

  Every time I hear “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by Bruce Springsteen, I find myself standing in the back room of the Western Auto store in Linden, Alabama. During high school, I worked at Western Auto for the Christmas season. My job was in the back putting together Christmas presents that people bought for their kids. There were 3 of us guys who worked back there. We were probably more like the 3 Stooges than the 3 Wise Men. There was no heater in the back area. Q 101 was playing Christmas music in the background. They must have played Springsteen’s song every hour as Christmas neared. We spent the days leading up to Christmas putting together Big Wheels and bicycles. It was always a challenge trying to fit 2 bikes and a Big Wheel into a parent’s Ford Pinto (look it up). I had a lot of fun, made a little extra money, and learned a couple of important lessons along the way. One thing I learned is that it is important to follow the instructions. A Big Wheel doesn’t always go t...
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Christmas Gifts

  When I was a child, Christmas always seemed so far away. But each year the nearness of Christmas was signaled by the arrival of the Sears and Roebuck Christmas catalog. I anxiously awaited its arrival and wore it out looking at all the incredible toys that it contained. I would lie on the floor in front of the fake Christmas fireplace that we put up in the living room and looked through that catalog almost every day. The lights of the Christmas tree would reflect off the pages as a little boy dreamed of how great it would be on Christmas morning. And Christmas morning never disappointed! There are 4 presents that stand out from my childhood years. A GI Joe that talked when you pulled his dog tags. A Red Ryder BB Gun. I did not shoot my eye out. A puppy that I named Angel. A helicopter that landed on a Styrofoam ship.   Those 4 gifts brought me a lot of joy. There is nothing wrong with that. But I no longer have any of those gifts. GI Joe eventually broke. I outgrew the BB ...
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