"Hey, Olive!", said the old round man with his white ribbed undershirt peeking under a blue plaid flannel shirt, his dark brown work pants held up with suspenders, white hair topped his head, his face was always smiling and eyes were a squint.
"Would you get me that thing from that place?"
"You know it Grandpa!" replied the gangly girl of 11 with ratty hair as she spun around out the screen door as it knocked against the frame several times before it shut.
The old man had worked a hard life that had paid off in dividends as he looked around counting his grand children, 11 to boot. He had traversed the country trailer in tow, here a job, there a job as families traveled together, building America, he was a steam fitter and a Mason. Looking back he recalled finding a place to settle with his wife and 4 children. Somewhere to take the wheels off their trailer so to start a different season of their life.
His wife was a strong beautiful woman with a strict and seasoned mind with ties to the land who had an eye for finding the right fishing spot, away from the rest of the world, a cut through into the woods, around the gully, up a little hill snaking to the right then the left and down, if you walk bit on the dust, rock, and flowers on the bank of the finger of the lake there is a fallen 1/3 of a tree where the fish swim free.
At this place this Welsh Gypsy settled in the 1950's were Mennonite and Amish communities as well as their own Baptist kind. Their little church patronage was pastored by a Korean man, a family man with a wife and three kids his own. Pastor Kim was his name an immigrant just arriving to a small rural town in the middle of the US of A, to preach the word of God.
The year Pastor Kim's family arrived to this out of the way place where no one looked like them they were not welcomed with open arms. Much of the attitude was the heat of the days. Freezing nights were real though and those that called themselves Christians refused to pay for oil to heat the home of their own Pastor because he was from a different place and looked different.
The old round mans wife her apron tied tight had a no nonsense take on people and life.
The old round man was a younger man then and even with, or maybe it was because, his eighth grade education he understood right from wrong and also knew a person is a person is a person.
Some how some way these poor people found a way, coats, and blankets and a warm place to stay.
They were tied tight together from then.
At our grandfathers funeral when Pastor Kim said his magic words of love and praise I hope he heard Grandpa whisper,
"See ya around, Charlie."
Because I did.
Our grandmothers delight was having great grand Children of all the kinds, in a line of many more.
Sun source
Blue Shift
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