I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week to fill up with gas and to pick up a few groceries. Jake came out to pump the gas and I asked him if his daughter and grandchild had gone back home. He said they left last Sunday and that Chrissy called when they got in to say they had a safe trip. Jake always worries when Chrissy is out on the road in holiday traffic and he was glad to hear they were all safe and sound, but that house across the road where Jake lives with his wife, Maureen, always seems so big and empty after Chrissy and Ellie are gone back to Jersey. Jake once had hopes that Paul, Chrissy’s husband, could find work in Memphis and they could move back closer to home, but he could not find anything that would pay what his job in Jersey paid. Jake figures he is just going to have to resign himself to the fact that his daughter and grandchild are living half way across the country now and he will only see them come holidays and special occasions. Still that house across the road always seems too big after they go back.
We went inside and I grabbed a shopping cart and began to wander around the store picking up the things I need. Time was when I picked up most of my regular weekly supply at the supermarkets in Corinth and just stopped by Charlie’s to get something I was out of, but recently I have been getting most of what I need from Jake. Jake certainly does not have the large selection of the big stores, but I find as I get older that I do not need so much variety in my life. I am more content with the basic foods like beans and potatoes and meat and milk and I do not much need to eat food I can’t spell.
I took a turn around the aisle and almost ran into Hurshel Ledbedder who was picking up a container of cookies. We both apologized for getting in the way of the other and Hurshel asked if I was not going to come over and say hello to the guys at the pot belly stove. I explained I was in something of a hurry with a project that is due in Jackson TN by the end of the week. Hurshel was having none of it and insisted I come over for a few minutes where the Charlie’s Regulars were planning a surprise birthday party for Mister Johnson. It seems Mister Johnson is going to be ninety on his next birthday and the boys wanted to make an occasion if it. I couldn’t much refuse getting in on planning a party for Mister Johnson, so I joined the group around the stove.
Mister Johnson’s brother, the Reverend, was there as was Ned Simpson and Bob Havershold. Hermann Spencer was with the group and Willard Smith along with County Deputy Arnold Suggs. Only it wasn’t the birthday party that was the topic of conversation as Hurshel and I walked up to the group. Willard Smith was talking about some United Nations Bureaucrat that had claimed the Western Nations were too stingy with their offerings of help to the people on the other side of the world after the earthquake generated ocean wave had killed thousands and left many thousands more homeless. Willard wanted to know where this guy with the mouth got off accusing the United States of being tight fisted with relief funds.
The Reverend reminded Willard this guy had not called the United States by name. Willard responded that was because the bureaucrat had left himself some wiggle room in case the heat came down on him for running off his mouth. He could say he was not talking about the United States but was just talking about Western Nations in general, but everyone had known exactly what he was talking about. When any two bit bureaucrat starts complaining about the sins of the Western Industrial Nations, everyone knows they are targeting the United States even if they don’t have the honesty to admit it when the heat gets turned up after they have been running off at the mouth when they should have kept quiet.
Ned Simpson put in with that it was a matter of record that the United States always came through with more aid and assistance than any other country on Earth every time there was a disaster somewhere on the planet. The American people are more generous in the face of a crisis than any other people anywhere and it is an insult for some two bit loudmouth with access to some stray microphone to claim otherwise. Ned thinks that when you come right down to it, the whole United Nations set up is an act of charity. If it were not for the Americans who keep that organization propped up when no other country will foot the bill, the United Nations would not exist and the loudmouth complaining about how stingy this country is would be looking for work in the real world. Ned thinks this is a case of someone with more mouth than brains biting the hand that feeds him.
Hurshel said he could agree the United States has some faults. No country is perfect. But Hurshel thinks it is about time the United States starts demanding some common courtesy for all the good things done in the world. It’s like when you are walking down the street and a beggar stops you and asks for a quarter so you stop and fish in your pocket and give him some money. Then, in place of thanking you, he spits on you because you did not give him more. Hurshel thinks some of these ungrateful beggars should start learning some social skills, learn a polite “thank you” is in order after a generous act of charity. Hurshel will agree that not everyone the United States gives assistance to is ungrateful, but he believes those who take offered charity and then complain about it should be taught the error of their ways.
It took a while for the discussion to run its course, but we finally came back to the subject of Mister Johnson’s birthday party. Everyone agreed on what to bring and the Reverend promised to have Mister Johnson in place for the party. This thing looks to be quite an event in the making. I wouldn’t miss it for anything!
END
