The Wonderfulness of the Moment
Thinking back over my life, the second grade was probably the moment I should have demanded to go no farther. I should have dug my feet in and fought to not move beyond my second grade paradise.
Arkansas was my second state. My first state had been Louisiana. Riding out of Louisiana aboard a Model A with a chicken coop floor was…interesting.
When we got to Pinebluff, Arkansas, “Big Jim” snookered a Chevrolet dealer into taking an unseen Model A in trade for a brand new Chevrolet. The new car smell was wonderful. I don't think young people have this pleasure available to them today…but I digress.
We moved on from the world's smallest apartment to an actual house in the suburbs before anyone used the term “suburbs.”
We lived far enough away from a school that I rode into town with Dad to attend a school two blocks from the plumbing supply business that he managed.
Each morning I walked the final two blocks to the elementary school which was an elderly two-story building. I didn't hate school, but I had a hard time understanding why we gathered at the school during the weekdays. I just didn't understand the point of the entire school process.
At this point you may be asking what was so wonderful about this moment in my life.
Oh, oh, one more bizarre thing from this time. Mom and Dad enrolled me in swimming class at the local YMCA which was about two blocks from the school. Unfortunately I kept forgetting my swimsuit, but…you know, it was a YMCA before it became the Y.M.C.A. I didn't learn to swim very well, but I did learn to float.
Okay, back to the wonderfulness of the moment.
Across from the school was a bakery and my path back to the plumbing supply shop, ran past the loading dock. Guess what? Most days as a couple of other young fellows and I walked past the workers loading the truck, the workers would toss each of us Hostess cupcakes. Could life get any better? Absolutely.
After checking in at the plumbing supply shop, I went to the café at the end of the block where I ordered a bowl of the best chili ever created by man or beast. Every day it was the same order: a bowl of chili.
A free cupcake plus what appeared to me to be a free bowl of chile at the end of another uninteresting school day.
Well, there was the square dance episode. The reason for this alludes me. The ladies insisted on teaching the kids the fine Arkansas tradition...weird.
However, all of the bizarre elements of the time did not diminish the significance of the wonderfulness of the cupcakes and the bowls of chili.
I'm thankful for this time, and I wish for no greater.
enough