Rip Noble, preaching at the special services
held at the Edwards Presbyterian church recently.
I didn't even ask her name.
I am writing this early Sunday morning…Because of the very busy week ahead… Rip Noble is preaching for special services at the Presbyterian church today, tonight, Monday and Tuesday evenings, the Edwards Fellowship Club is coming here for dessert Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday I am going to Raymond to get Susan to cut my dog Charlie’s hair, and Annie to polish my toes nails. Then Saturday there is a wedding shower for Marianna Harpole out at Peggy Ann‘s. And in the middle of all these goings-on ….….The L C has Yankees coming ….to visit…He is delighted. They are coming from Pennsylvania…they were part of his church family up there.
So, any spare time, I have this week, will be devoted to practicing my best southern manners and of course working on my southern accent, because Yankee love the way we talk down here in the deep south. If I do say so myself, I have perfected my accent to a level high enough that I can fool most Yankees…..but not to the degree I can deceive you all.
In my efforts readying this house for Tuesday, I cleaned off my desk and under a pile of papers, I found the journal from my recent buss ride. March must be the time for the traveling carnivals to crank back up…one lady was traveling from Indiana to Port Arthur Texas, to join back up with the carnival she has worked for seven years. Coming out of Florida there was a carnival worker, young lady, who was on her way to Tupelo Mississippi, to visit her family.
I am thinking, that buss travelers quite possibly have more tattoos and body piercing then the average person traveling by most any other means. My favorite was a woman, she was densely tattooed on all parts of her body that were visible, she was small built and very thin, in fact she was scrawny, she had several teeth missing. I am guessing she was my age,…..There was something about her that draw me, maybe it was her smile…..it was sincere and genuine. She was a chain smoker so when she got off the buss she went with the smokers, a younger crowd, I watched as she interacted with them…..she was motherly toward them….she seemed have a honest affection for them and them for her.
It was in Tallahassee, outside the terminal where the smokers had been banished to….That I got up the nerve to chat with her a bit…found out she was going to FT. Myers too…it was her birthday she was going home to see her family, her mother and aunt would be meeting her at the station…I asked permission to take her picture…I did not take many picture of the people traveling on the buss….It was not my world, it was theirs.
I took her picture, they called our buss…as we were walking back across the terminal together, she saw a young man standing near a bank of pay phones…she excused herself, “I have got to go check on my buddy.” She explained, that Tallahassee was his destination…and he could not find anybody to come pick him up. She was worried about him, I went on by myself and took my seat.
I only talked to the tattooed lady that one time…we did however exchange smiles each time the bus stopped. I have thought about her a lot, and wondered about me…questioned if I had met her in my world, would I have given her a second thought? Would I have judged her based solely on her appearance? And missed her sweet compassionate heart? Her caring nature?
I have come to believe, If I had not met the lady with the many tattoos, even though the encounter was a brief one…it would have been my great loss…..
I better get going…I think Dave Harpole is singing Beulah Land at the special services this morning…I don’t want to miss that!
Love to all , call if you need me.
This is the web page for the church Rip Noble is pastoring You've Found Hope!
GloriaChristiansen@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment