During my final year living in New York state, I lived alone in the apartment above my father’s store. It was a good transition time before I would move over 600 miles away to Indiana where I still live. It was also convenient for me living above the store because there were times, we ran out of things like bread to sell. (we had a really good price – 3 large loaves of white bread for $1.00, we moved a lot of bread!) The bread products were delivered Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The bread truck came by at about 1:30 pm, so if we were out of bread, it meant half of the day with no bread to sell. The bread man gave me his home phone number so I could call him if we were out of bread (no later than 7:00 pm) and he would meet me at 5:30 am by the back door to unload bread to get us by until afternoon!
But there was another side to living in that apartment in those days…some local people and truckers called it “the action corner”! Because you rarely went more than a few months without a motor vehicle accident, some of them doing a lot of damage.
The first major accident on that corner was when “the old store” was still opposite Nauman’s Store. It wasn’t being used as a store anymore, but a man named Daniel was renting it. All the locals called him Dan’l and he was always happy and easy going! One night a car was going too fast, couldn’t make the corner and CRASHED right into the bedroom of what used to be “the old store”. Dan’l sat up in bed and turned on a light. The man who drove the car opened the car door and got out. Dan’l said, “Are you okay?” He said, “I’m okay, how about you?” Dan’l said, “I’m fine and as long as you’re here I’ll go put on the coffee.” now maybe that was a little too calm!
That crash led to the building being torn down – with just the cellar remaining. Then for about the next ten years, cars crashed into the cellar or the guard rails on either side of the cellar…
During the year that I lived above the store, one foggy Sunday morning at about 6 am I suddenly heard the screech of tires and a CRASH AND THUMP! I quickly looked out the window and saw a pickup truck upside down in area that I’d never seen a wreck before. I rushed outside and as I walked over to the scene, there was a young woman standing in the middle of the road. I asked her if she was okay, she said she was fine, but her truck was “stuck”. I figured she must be in shock because an upside-down truck is more than “stuck”. Her face and hands were muddy – probably from crawling out, so I asked her if she wanted to come over and wash up and use the phone which she did. Throughout that whole episode from walking up to the wreck and as help started arriving, even though I’m sure I had a rapid heartbeat, I knew I needed to stay CALM…or else I would be of no help.
We should always look to and study to learn about our ultimate role model – Jesus Christ. Mark 4:39 says that Jesus CALMLY stilled a terrifying storm on the Sea of Galilee with just three words, “Peace. Be Still.” WOW!
Till Next Time…..
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