Growing up in rural Nebraska in the 1950’s and 1960’s, it
seemed we had very little money. But it didn’t feel like we were poor. We had
two pairs of jeans, one pair of shoes for work and another for Sunday, and enough
to eat. Operating the dairy allowed our family to keep the farm while our
friends and neighbors went broke and moved to California.
When we sponsored the foreign military students at Ft.
Leavenworth, we made some terrific friends and met some great people. One of
the couples we met were educators at a small town north of Leavenworth, and
they described a situation that would be defined, in my book, as “poor.”
The little girl came to the first day of third grade in
shabby clothes and had only a bag of chips for lunch. Upon inquiring the
teachers found out that she and her family had just moved there and the reason
she had no “real” food was because they didn’t have a refrigerator.
The teachers and administrators took up a collection, bought
a second hand refrigerator and delivered it to the family. They were thrilled,
and the little girl started to come to school with good lunches. Then, one day,
it looked like things had really changed because she showed up with a new dress
and new shoes.
“Looks like you got a new dress?”
“Yep. We sold the refrigerator.”
No comments:
Post a Comment