One spring night a young woman traveled from the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico to the Bluegrass state of Kentucky. She had experienced the sun, the suds, and the sin of spring holiday on the golden beaches. Her and other beach worshippers filled Interstate 65 creating a steady flow of headlights pointed North.
It was not long after passing exit
231 just north of Calera, Alabama when she heard the roar and felt the disintegration
of one of her tires. Her joys of the spender of the blue waters and blue skies now
replaced with the darkness, an eerie feeling, and the unknown of an Alabama
night. The continuous flow of beach worshippers focused on home.
Good beach worshippers changed
lanes and passed on the other side. Other people saw the dilemma and passed on
the other side saying, “That poor girl.” They feared delay and trepidation of
the unknown as the stranded vehicle disappeared in the hundreds of headlights
that blinded those that looked in their rearview mirrors.
Just a few miles from her situation
MC and Charley were bathing after a shift of working in the cement plant. MC,
an oiler helper on the cement kilns, washed the cement, coal, lime dust, and
grease from his tired body. Charley, a feed end man on the lime kilns showered
away the dust and grime from crushed limestone that covered him.
MC and Charley transferred from a
sister cement plant in North Birmingham Plant when it closed. In the move, they
retained their seniority and other benefits. Charley began working in 1948,
four years prior to my birth, which was over thirty years at the time.
MC ‘s tenure was not as long as
Charley. Charley and MC rode to and from North Birmingham, about fifty-mile
round trip. Their mode of travel was a tan 1969 Dodge Charger covered overtime
with cement and lime dust from the plant. It was ragged, but dependable.
Bathed and dressed in fresh street
clothes after working from three until eleven pm, the two journeyed from Calera.
As these two friends of mine started home they spotted the young lady sitting
alone just about a mile from the exit. They stopped a short distance behind. MC
could see the flat tire and very carefully got the young lady’s attention.
MC told me the story of what
happened. MC and I had made friends working side by side as cement kiln oilers.
Our bond was strong enough that we called each other Cuz. He, a black man from
North Birmingham, and I being a country boy from rural Alabama, were an odd
mix. We were close friends and he said he knew the young white girl has
horrified in the dark night.
MC was dark skinned and could look
and be intimidating. Most of the men in the plant feared him. I have watched
him sharpen his pocketknife as our foreman and other employees would confront
him. He said sharping the pocketknife softened the confrontation.
Once some boycotters at a
department store would not allow him entrance. MC walked back to his
automobile, opened the truck, and retrieved a pistol. Reaching the boycotters
the second time, he pointed the pistol in their faces and said, “If you sorry
people would work, this department store would hire you. I’m going in to pick
up my lay-a-way.” He did.
MC taught me about dealing with intimidation.
He said, “Cuz, look them in the eye and don’t backdown. Most people that intimidate
are cowards.” I found his wisdom very true.
MC said, “I walked up to the young woman
and told her to stay in her car and open the truck that Charley and I would fix
her flat.” She told him that she did not have a spare tire. MC told her that
his Charger tire would fit her car and she could travel to a service station or
she could continue to use his tire. He asked where she was headed. She said
that she was headed back to college in Kentucky. MC asked, “What school?”
The school was the same one as MC’s
daughter attended. MC told his daughter’s name and said when you get another tire
give mine to my daughter.
MC told me that he treated the
young woman as he hoped someone would help his daughter. That’s the kind of
friends MC and Charley were. After I became a minister, MC said, “Cuz I knew
all along God was calling you to preach.
A certain man went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his
raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance
there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on
the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and
looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he
journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him
on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the
morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and
said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come
again, I will repay thee. Luke 310:30-35
Thanks for the memories Cuz
Love these stories!
ReplyDelete