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Angels on my shoulder
Posted On: 11/30/2007 19:40:50
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In 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungrybabies and just 75 cents in my pocket. Their father was gone. The boys rangedfrom 3 months to 7 years; their sister was 2. Their Dad had never been muchmore than a presence they feared.
Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scrambleto hide under their beds.
He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries.
Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no foodeither.
If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, Icertainly knew nothing about it. I scrubbed the kids until they looked brandnew and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old '51Chevy and drove off to find a job.
The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town.No luck.
The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried toconvince whomever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. Ihad to have a job.
Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was anold Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop. It wascalled the Big Wheel.
An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window fromtime to time at all those kids. She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11at night until 7 in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could startthat night.
I raced home and called the teenager down the streetthat baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa fora dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids wouldalready be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal.
That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all thankedGod for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel.
When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her homewith one dollar of my tip money -- fully half of what I averaged every night.As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage.
The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began toleak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morningbefore I could go home.
One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found fourtires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing, just thosebeautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up residence in Indiana, Iwondered?
I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting thenew tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot longer toscrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires.
I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough.Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids.
I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys.Then hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliveron Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry, too. I was sewing patches on top ofpatches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.
On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel.These were the truckers, Les, Frank and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe.
A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were droppingnickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all just sat around and talkedthrough the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the suncame up.
When it was time for me to go home at 7 on Christmas morning, to my amazement,my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes andsizes. I quickly opened the driver's side door, crawled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat.
Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was a whole case oflittle blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full ofshirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes.There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries.
There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. Therewas pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was a wholebag of laundry supplies and cleaning items.
And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll.
As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the mostamazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And I willnever forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning.
Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung outat the Big Wheel truck stop .
THE POWER OF PRAYER. I believe that God only gives three answers to prayer:
1. 'Yes!' 2. 'Not yet.'3. 'I have something better in mind.'
God still sits on the throne; the devil is a liar. You may be going through atough time right now, but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that youcannot imagine.
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