So Jack is afraid of Santa Clause. He hasnt been taught to be that way. Maybe its just in our instinct to fear someone who seems different than us. The phone rang in the early evening. It was my son calling. He and his brother were returning from Atlanta after buying a big screen t.v. on E-bay. Something happened to the truck and they were stuck in the middle of the city and needed me to come get them. I grabbed my keys and headed east when my phone rang again. The tow truck driver had taken them to an auto shop. It was after hours, their phone battery was dying and could I please hurry. This is not a good place to be, they said. All I knew of the inner city was what I read in the papers or had seen on the Nightly News. I believed it to be a place of hatred, of poverty and crime. A place of prostitution and drug dealing with little regard for the law. A place to die over the contents of your wallet. I feared for my sons as I made the ninety minute drive in just over an hour. Upon arrival, I was greeted by the tow truck driver. He was a gentlemanly type older black man with a friendly smile and a quick how da ya do? He had stayed with my sons because they seemed a little nervous he said. I thanked him and we began to move the t.v. to my truck. Then a voice from behind said,do you all need some help? No thank you we said as the young teenager wished us a good night and headed off into the crowd. Within the next few moments, several more people stopped to offer help and wished us a good night. Surprised by the friendliness of people, my sons told me of a young boy who had ask them for five dollars so he could get something to eat. They watched as he crossed the street to a fast food joint just as they were closing for the night. He then came back across the street and tried to give my sons their five dollars back. I drove out of the inner city a little slower than Id driven into it. It just didnt seem like I needed to be in such a hurry. Jack will soon outgrow his fear of Santa Clause. He will take the time to get to know him and realize hes not such a bad guy after all......and I will always remember the night the inner city changed the inner me. Thoughts from a Tractor Seat, Randy
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 12:54:50 +0000
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