Blog 2094 – 06.19.2021
The Secret Christmas Gift
Throughout this week leading up to Father’s Day tomorrow, I have been sharing thoughts and memories of my daddy. If you still have your dad with you I hope you will do something special to remind him how very much he means to you while you still can. What I would not give for just one more chance to spend time with my father, but the best I can do I share memories of him with you.
In the early nineteen-fifties good paying work was not all that available in Chattanooga, Tennessee, my birthplace and hometown, so my dad moved us, my mother, brother, and me, to Detroit, Michigan where he held two jobs, actually three at the same time. By day he drove a street car for the City of Detroit, and on an evening shift he ran a drill press at the Cadillac automobile factory, also to get our apartment at a reduced rate in the building managed by my mother’s dad, my Paw Paw, dad helped with building maintenance in his spare time. With a wife, two young sons, and two full time jobs, I am sure there was precious little of that.
During one of those short lulls between jobs, Dad was watching us boys while Mom was out shopping with her stepmom, our Lilly. Dad was not known for keeping secrets so after making us promise not to tell mom he took us down to the basement storage area and let us play with our Christmas gifts early.
First thing when mom got home the story goes that all I could talk about was getting to take a ride in my shiny new red fire engine pedal car. It seems I am indeed my father’s son.
Jesus once said, “Nothing is secret, but that it shall be shouted from the housetops.” It was quite a stretch to ever think my daddy or his oldest boy could ever keep a shiny red fire truck a secret for very long and we did not. Mom, never forgot what she saw as a betrayal. She wanted to see the look of surprise and joy on my face and she did, just a few weeks early.
Thanks dad.
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White
Young At Heart
theencouragingword 