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We
got a new Starbuck's. First one in South Texas and I mean
everybody has asked me if I had been to try it. Of course
I've said no, I personally think coffee tastes like it would
kill fleas. . . . . or worse, and at four or five dollars a
drink I would rather have a nice Highland Single Malt.
So,
tired of all the explaining, I went. Sitting down I spied a
young neighborhood woman who has her own real estate company
and her hubby is an engineer at one
of
the plants here, they are the picture of success for thirty
somethings. Nice home, nice cars, a boy seven and a girl
eight. She spied me and smiling, came to fawn over her
coffee. She asked me what flavor I got, to which I replied,
"Pet dip". Laughing and bubbling along she began telling me
about her kid's candy and nut selling projects for school
and a predicament she found herself in.
Seems as though she was driving the neighborhoods with the
boy working one side of the street, the little girl the
other when the little girl came back to the car with no
money and no candy or nuts.
???I
asked her why and she said the little girl who answered the
door told her they didn't have any money and hardly anything
to eat. Her father had lost his job and they may lose their
house before her father started a new job after the
holidays", she told me. She went on while I listened,
telling me how she agonized all night knowing that those
houses were worth a lot and the people had lived there for
several years paying on it.
The
next day she looked the property up on her computer, found
the name of the mortgage company and finding it under
foreclosure. She promptly, knowing her hubby might fuss,
contacted them. She knew the people at the company so it
wasn't a
problem for her to catch the payments up and a month ahead
to give the family a chance at getting their lives back
together.
Sitting there looking at her cute young face, a trailing
Christmas stocking cap on and all her holiday regalia pinned
on her clothes, I thought to myself, "What about utilities,
food, gifts for the children"? She bubbled up again.
"I
went to the supermarket (we have a big chain) and bought
certificates for the family to spend at the store. They will
have plenty to make it until he goes to work. They have a
utility payment desk there for the city so I caught up those
bills too. I also gave their address to the children's toy
group I work with so they will have something for the
holiday", she told me.
Sitting there chuckling to myself I asked her what she
thought her hubby was going to say, to which she replied, "I
make five times what he does, he'd better not ruin my
Christmas high, or he'll sleep in the pool's change room."
"She's not a Ripplemaker", I thought to myself, "she's a
tsunami".
(c)
2003 by Mark Crider
Existential philosopher, raconteur, and dean of dirty words.
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May you be blessed today.
Bob Johnston
Editor / Publisher |
