Old Thurm

   A few months ago, when the electric was out, I still had battery on my laptop and nothing to do. I tried to write more of the mystery short story I have been working on, but I couldn't. I knew I had something to write, so I just started writing and this is what came out. I don't know if this is it, but I ended it with room to add more stories about him, true stories. If anyone wants to send me a private message of something he did that could fit in with this, please do and we will see what happens.         

"There was a man, he was very unique, just about everything he did wasn't considered normal. Yet, everyone he had met liked him, and called him a great man. That man was my grandpa. He grew up in the country, and was born with slight hearing loss. But he worked hard his entire life, and went to school until the sixth grade. School was harder for him than most because of his hearing issues. But that was okay because he liked to work with his hands and didn't mind getting dirty or cut up while working. I remember him doing this way up into his old age, he would work at whatever task he could find. Then he would come in the house with his arms bleeding and he would just smile when you pointed it out to him.

     He was a drinker in his younger days, he would drink while he worked and come home drunk. I guess he was grouchy with his older kids and my grandma. She just stuck by him and prayed every single day that he’d let Jesus save him. And finally there came a day, my grandpa became a Christian and some years later God called him to preach. Imagine that, a man who had once been a drinker, who was very grouchy and hard of hearing, becoming a preacher. But I guess that isn’t a new story, since king David was just a little Shepard boy, and Moses had speech problems. I guess my grandpa wasn’t much different in that way, he was living proof of God making someone great, out of someone flawed.

But some things didn’t change, he straightened up don’t get me wrong, but he was still a stubborn man and a hard worker. He worked until he couldn’t work anymore. And when he retired, he got another job that wasn’t physically strenuous at Walmart as a door greater. My grandpa was anything but lazy. As for the stubborn part, I have a story about that. My grandpa worked most of his life at a local plant, I guess it was a typical small town plant that supported most people in the area. As cliché as it is, our small town has been pretty much like the ones you read about, or see in the movies.

Well to tell this story I have to first tell you that my grandpa was no stranger to anyone. When I was younger I thought he was always getting confused because he’d go up to random people and say “don’t I know you?” But now, looking back, I kind of think he knew that he didn’t know those people. He was probably just looking for an excuse to start a conversation.

     So he had his job at the plant, and he made friends with just about every one of his coworkers. I don’t know that for sure but knowing him, I’m guessing that’s what he did. Now this was a very small town and my grandpa grew up on a farm out in the hills. He had become a preacher at this point at a small old church called mt. Carmel. This church was way back in the holler, on an old dirt road called pleasant ridge. Well back in the old days before racial equality, the local people didn’t call it by its given name. The road had a terrible nickname “n-word ridge”. People called it that because that’s where they would take the escaped slaves and hang them. It was a terrible time, I’m sure. I am ashamed that something like that went on in my home town but it’s important to mention as part of this story.   

     Now my grandpa was a unique person, as I said, and one reason I said that is because he didn’t take orders from no one except God. He didn’t go around breaking the law and he did his job the way he was told and didn’t make a fuss over it. But when it came time for him to do something he wanted to do, if it wasn’t a sin or illegal, no man on this earth was going to stop him. So when he met a black guy at work, I’ll just call him Joe, he and Joe became good friends. They were friends for a while and their friendship continued while my grandpa was the pastor at this church up the holler. As it turns out, his friend Joe had also been called to preach.

     Now I know this isn’t a big deal now, but at that time, Joe and his family were the only people around here of a different race. Of course, my grandpa probably didn’t even take the time to notice that. If he did notice, he didn’t care at all because Joe was and still is a wonderful man. Well my grandpa got the idea that he wanted Joe to come and preach a revival at the church he was pastoring up in the holler. The people didn’t like it at all, the whole idea made them uncomfortable. They didn’t know anyone like that and they definitely hadn’t listened to someone like Joe preach before.

     My grandpa, if you knew him you’d understand that he wasn’t trying to cause a fuss. But he also wasn’t trying to be a hero, he just liked Joe, and wanted his friend to come preach. That’s as far as he thought it through and his mind was made up on the matter. No matter what people said, grandpa wasn’t going to change his mind. I’m sure grandpa never mentioned it to Joe that people were acting ignorant, he just told him and the family to come on out.   

     So Joe and his family came out and Joe preached, he and his family are very musically talented as well. So they sang and after the first night about half the congregation had forgotten why they didn’t want Joe’s family around. By the second night it was about ninety percent that were not only okay with it, they were excited about it. By the time the revival was over most of the county had heard about Joe and his family and they wanted to hear Joe preach and hear his family’s music. Now my grandpa didn’t set out to change the entire area, he just saw it the way God intended.

     Joe was a good man, and my grandpa only saw that, he didn’t care about doing something great. He wasn’t feeling sorry for Joe or trying to save him, he just liked him. That story wasn’t told to me until after my grandpa had passed, I had no idea that happened. Seems like these days people only hold the door open for others because they are trying to win some kindness award for it. But that’s not who my grandpa was, he liked to just live his life and be kind because that’s what God asked him to do. He didn't want to make a name for himself or to be patted on the back. He was just a stubborn man, and when he became a Christian, God used his stubbornness to change things in a backward area.

     Now Joe and his family are well known, Joe has pastored his own church in the area for as long as I can remember. Joe and his family are great people and I have yet to meet the person who can say anything otherwise. Now back to my grandpa, that was just one of the many times his uniqueness turned out to be something that made this small part of the world a better place."