THOUGHTFUL THURSDAY

Since it is Thoughtful Thursday I want to share a few instances when people were very thoughtful towards me, and showed me so much kindness that I'll never forget them!

The first thing that comes to mind is when I started riding the buses through St. Louis back in the 60's in my early teens.

I did  not know how to get to the places I wanted to go, did not know how to use the transfers, where to change buses, or when to get on and off.

There were certain bus drivers that were especially patient and kind to me, and would overlook the times I lost my transfer or didn't have enough change to put in the cool change thingy.

They always seemed to be the ones that were dressed sharply, who were polite, helpful and smiling to everybody.

I looked up to them, and respected them as I would a Cardinals baseball player, or an airplane pilot.

I was on the varsity wrestling team when I was a sophomore in high school.

I wrestled in the 180 pound weight class, and so did Art.

Art was a magnificent athlete with a perfect body for wrestling that was lean, muscular and fast.

I was strong, but not half the wrestler as Art.

We came to be great friends and he loved singing, like me, and we would sing our hearts out on the bus, on our way to and from wrestling meets.

At practice, he was so fast and smart that I never, ever had a chance of beating him.

Then came the day we had to wrestle each other to see who would go to the state championship to represent our school.

I had wrestled Art many times, and I knew I would be pinned in a couple of minutes, as usual, but now, it would be in front of a lot of spectators, and the love of my life at the time, Barbara Branneky, the cute wrestling manager.

Not actually Barbara Branneky, but you get the idea!

So I start wrestling Art, and to my amazement, I'm doing pretty good!

It's been 2 minutes and he hasn't pinned me yet?!

I actually get 1 point against him,

 and he only beats me 3 to 1!

The crowd went wild!

I lost, but no one expected me to do so well against Art, who, by the way, went on to win 2nd place in the whole state!

Okay...you know how you can always tell when a close friend is lying to you?

It didn't take long for me to figure out that Art allowed me to do so well against him, because he was just a nice guy. 

That was very cool, indeed!

My last experience that I'd like to share is of the time me and Doug started sinking in the soft mud on the banks of the Missouri River.

We were scared! We kept sinking down, down to our chests, and we thought we were goners, for sure!

Then, out of nowhere, comes this dude, dragging a big log with him!

He manages to push this heavy log over to us, close enough for us to pull ourselves out of the mud!

How thankful we were to this wonderful, thoughtful, caring man!

These events helped to shape my attitude in a way that I have really not made clear yet.

All of the kind, caring, thoughtful, helpful, beautiful souls I just mentioned, that took the time to look out for me in my youth...

were black men.