Our eyes are recording devices capturing images and storing
them for retrieval when remembering or taking time for refection. The birth of that first child, their first
bike ride, first prom, graduation, and wedding are pictures that stay with
us. These “memo graphic” snapshots and
“memo recordings” bring smiles or laughs.
Then, there are those pictures recorded in our minds we wish
we had never seen. These images wake us
in the night, preoccupy our thoughts in the day, and scare us in the twilight.
Some images trigger forgotten or suppressed images. Such is the case of Martin. I met him when I trained as a die setter for
Keystone Metal Moulding Corporation. He
was my lead man and die setting mentor.
Martin was frail and pale from a gunshot wound, a 22-caliber
bullet pressed against his spine. He
claimed that he tried to commit suicide.
Most of the scuttlebutt around the plant was that Martin’s wife shot
him. As a nineteen-year-old kid, I knew
that one does not commit suicide by shooting oneself in the stomach.
Martin’s wife was beautiful, but very unfaithful. I had never been around very many adulterous
people out in the sticks of my youth. My
familiarity with running around was wind sprints at football and chasing pigs. I did discover that there were some very
promiscuous people in my family and other family who “lived across the tracks.”
Keystone Metal Moulding Corporation was a very promiscuous
plant. It was so bad that I would not
tell people I worked there. It was an
eye opener for this naïve kid. The
things said and the things I witnessed at the plant would make Corinthian
sailors blush. With this licentious
environment, Martin’s exposure to mockery and tease were common as the daily
news that another jealous husband was interrogating every male’s exit from the
plant. I could not believe how Martin
laughed and cut up when the unfaithfulness of his wife was the topic for the
day.
To appease his wife, Martin bought her a new house trailer
and a new 1973 Ford Gran Torino. The
Gran Torino was the hit as a muscle car and it was good looking, red with a
black vinyl top and mag wheels. I
wondered how these things could corral an unfaithful wife, but I was unfamiliar
with hedonist world of infidelity. I
knew good-looking hot rods attracted girls, so why not a wandering wife?
Martin hitchhiked to work and I would carry him home after
work. We worked the evening shift. One cold winter night it was sleeting. I have this “memo recording” of my old Plymouth ’s wipers pushing
the sleet on the windshield. Vacuum
wipers have an unrhymed movement and the sleet rolled against the window.
Martin lived less than two miles from the plant. As we passed the Friendship Baptist
Church parking lot, a
church I would pastor years later, I noticed a Red Gran Torino under the
security light. I said, “That’s looks
just like your wife’s Torino .” He joked that she must be running around on
him again and said, “That’s not her car.”
I used to pride myself on identifying cars and I knew that it was his
wife’s car.
Remember its cold, sleeting, and after midnight when I take Martin home. I pulled into Blacksnake Trailer Park
to Martin’s trailer and there is no Torino
there. I wait for Martin to enter the
trailer door and then he motions me to come.
The sight I saw is one of those things you never forget. There on a doormat on a cold trailer floor
were three little girls curled together just like small puppies. One was wearing a diaper and the other two
were wearing panties. They wore no tops
just a diaper and panties. The oldest
was three or four years old and said, “Momma’s out with a man.”
My heart broke. The
sad thing was that none of the three was Martin’s daughters and all three had
different daddies. I stood there in
amazement and disbelief. Martin was angry,
but always defended his wife’s infidelity.
Martin eventually lost all he owned and lived with his in-laws. The bullet against the spine and his wife’s
unfaithfulness eroded his health. One
night I received a phone call saying that Martin placed a 410 shotgun to his
heart and committed suicide. I had never
witnessed a man who loved such an unfaithful wife that he could not live
without her. The memory of three little
girls curled on a rug is an image I shall never forget and puts a face on Gomer
in The Book of Hosea.
The beginning of the
word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a
wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great
whoredom, departing from the Lord (Hosea 1:2 KJV).
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