Lots of folks think the holidays are time for gifts, but I have always thought the holidays were the best time to reconnect with people who have touched your life. Having just cleaned out my mother's house at 347 West Pine Street this past summer, I can attest that over time the gifts sometimes lose their significance, but the people always remain bright in my memories.
Life has been a wonderful roller coaster, with many people helping me along the way. Some of them have disappeared in the fabric of America, but I enjoy reminiscing about the little moments that have meant so much to me and some of the ones that have really changed me. Then there are the funny ones which probably were not very funny at the time.
I will never forget the Christmas dinner when we had gone to visit our good friends the Cubitts. We got a phone call that our cattle herd was wandering up the hill in Tay Creek. The mothers, whose calves we had just weaned, had broken out of one pasture in an effort to get closer to their babies. Lesson one, never wean the calves the day before Christmas. There is nothing like chasing black cows in the dark in the snow on Christmas eve while you have just missed dinner.
Perhaps the most touching event also occurred at the end of our farm years. We had been working for a year to get ready to have our dispersal sale, which when you have nearly 200 head of cattle is no small feat.
I had hired three fellows to help me for the last couple of months, to get the barn cleaned and the pens built. Unfortunately, the cold fall rains had set in, and we were falling hopelessly behind in getting things done. It looked like we just would not be ready on time.
Just as things were looking their bleakest one Monday morning, many of the men from the community just showed up to help. Who asked them I will never know. Most had plenty of their own work to do, but they put a couple of hard weeks that rescued our sale. One fellow even took two weeks vacation to help. The weather and working conditions were so bad, that one person got pneumonia.
There is no way that you can really thank people who have come to your aid in a time of real need. There just are not the right words in the English language.
Even today if one of those friends called me and asked for help, I would just get on an airplane and go.
Some people think this kind of thing could only happen in a farming community. That is not my experience. There are people in all walks of life that have that same helping hand spirit.
I have been fortunate to be involved with a number of amazing people over the years. There are very few who are your friend only while you can do something for them, but I know a few of those.
There are far more folks out there, who given the opportunity, would do whatever they could to help a friend.
That is the spirit of true friendship that I want to remember this holiday season. My hope is that I have touched some folks' lives along the way and perhaps even helped them be successful.
My goal has always been to leave things a little better than I find them.
As hard as I have tried not to burn any bridges, I have been on a couple of bridges where the flames came up around me. There is not much one can do about that but run, and hope for another opportunity to reconnect under different circumstances. I always try to remember the good times and try to forget bad ones.
So in the true spirit of the holidays, may each of us reconnect with at least one old friend during this time of goodwill towards everyone.
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