Overall Wit & Wisdom

Bill Chitwood for Progressive Dairyman

Well, time changes everything. It is only natural for us to want things to stay the way they are but that is not the way life goes. I have some more sad news to report this month. I told you month before last about the passing of my brother-in-law, Charles.

Well, this month it looks very much like I am going to lose another member of my family, my little 1990 Toyota pickup that I have driven all these years. It got me through my mid-life crisis and has taken me to so many good places and all the while got 30 miles to the gallon. Now, it is about to give up the ghost.

It looks like you would expect it to look after 17 years and never been housed in a garage. It did not look too bad until last fall when I hit that big buck deer that almost turned me over. I was coming home after giving a talk to a group up north and it was about midnight and there he was. I hit him right on my front, left side. I was immediately turned sideways and over in the ditch. I was lucky the ditchbank was not too steep and I was able to get the pickup straightened up and back up on the road. Both tires on the left side were blown out, and the left headlight was gone. Where the deer went under the left rear tire, the fender was in pretty bad shape.

I was lucky I was within about 10 miles of my home, so I called on my cell phone and they came and got me. So you see, me and my little pickup have been through a lot together.

The thermostat got bad and would not let the water through. The ol’ Toyota got hot and blew a head gasket and water is now getting in the oil. Things do not look good. I don’t know where I can ever find another pickup like this one. All the pickups they make now drink gas like a fish drinks water. Even the so-called “small pickups” have big six and eight cylinder motors in them. I get tickled at all these people driving those big dually pickups and don’t even have a trailer hitch on them, but that is the way life is. You have to be thankful for the good things you have today, because you never know what tomorrow holds, thank goodness.

As you live out your life, the things that you want change. Young people want fast cars with big engines, so they can show off in front of their friends. When you get as old as I am you are not in a hurry very often. About the only time I get in a hurry any more is sometimes when I am headed to the bathroom. That seems to speed up the older you get.

I heard a story that illustrates how differently young and old people look at things. We have all these little towns around where I live, and they all have homecomings.

Most of the people have moved away to the big cities to seek their fortune, but they like to come home to see the folks.

Towns have homecomings, churches have homecomings, and graveyards have homecomings.

They had a big homecoming at the old Drake church, the oldest church in the county. It was a hot day and they had dinner on the ground. Everyone ate too much. After dinner they had some good gospel singing, the preacher gave a little devotional and then they went out to work on the graveyard. They put the fence back up, they mowed and they took up a collection for future maintenance.

As the sun was setting in the west, as it usually does in our part of the country, they were heading for their cars. This young man was heading for his sports car, when he saw this old man leaning against a big old oak tree, tears streaming down his face. The young man said, “Is there anything I can do to help you?”

“No,” the old man said, “I was just looking out over the graveyard where all my friends are laying.”

The young man said, “How old are you?”

The old man said, “I am 94.”

The young man said, “Well, there is not much use of you going back to town, is there?!”

Most young people would not feel bad if they lost that little Toyota pickup that I have grown so fond of through these years. They would replace it with one that could pass everything on the road. The only thing I like to pass is a gas station. PD