Friday, August 9, 2013

The lost check

Pitiful, pitiful, pitiful!!!!!

This is one of those things Dad would say when something funny but shameful would happen and this is one of those times, the time we lost a check.

I use to have a Shetland pony and a surrey which I could ride up and down the gravel roads at high speed.  It was a lot of fun and I was probably in the 11 or 12 year old timeframe when I got her.  She had an attitude but when you hooked her up to the cart she could get up and go. 

Speaking of "get up and go", I will never forget the time Janie Shumate did a 4-H skit at the Osage County talent show over in Pawhuska and the name of her skit was "When my get up and go had got up and went".  I thought it was one of the funniest things I had ever seen.  She had a real talent for the acting and she was one of the sweetest people out of Grainola and the oldest daughter of Beth Shumate (the cherry pie lady and my 3rd, 4th and 5th grade teacher).  As I recall she did another single person skit a year or so later and it was called "George and Martha ".  The only words in the skit were George and Martha but she said those words with many different voice inflections and you could see how George and Martha first met, got to know each other and finally fell in love.  You could hear it in their voices as their love grew deeper and deeper and as I recall it right threw the aging process to the end of a long life together.  I suppose it was one of the most moving skits I had ever seen to this day.  In my mind she should have won the contest.

OK, back to the lost check.  I bet you cannot wait for this? 

Well racing up and down that gravel road was a lot of fun but one day I had taken my favorite sister, Debbie, for a ride and disaster struck.  The Shetland Pony got its front left leg on the outside of the guide rails on the surrey and as it poked into her flank she got wild and wilder.  Finally she took off to the left toward the bar ditch and gravel was flyer because we were going so fast.  I could see we were running straight into the barbed wire fence and if you don't know what that is let me tell you.  It is wired twisted together with barbs every four or so inches to help keep animals from going through the fence as the barbs would dig into their hide.  Well let me tell you I could see what was coming and I yelled "Geronimo, get off of this cart".  Being the brave man I am, I jumped and Debbie did not!  It was a grave mistake.  Debbie must have gotten a hundred stitches in the back of her leg and I would say she was blessed it was not any worse.  She was cut up bad.  It was such a traumatic mess that I have no idea what happened to the horse other than Dad got her untangled and back safe to the barn yard.  The cart was not even damaged at all.

Yes, there is a check in here somewhere. 

After that I decided to sell the cart and yes I got a check for $40 from some folks over in Bartlesville.  Mom put the check in a safe place until we could go to the bank and I could deposit it.  Of course it would be deposited at the Shidler State Bank where Mr. Wendal Andrews was president (remember he was my first banker) except for one problem.  Mom put the check up so we would not lose it and we could not find it.  In fact it was at least one year and maybe two or three before we found it.  The sad thing is when we found it.

Have you ever dusted your house and furniture and not picked something up but just scooted it around until you got the surface dusted?  Well Mom put that check under the BIBLE and sadly it was not picked up for a long long time.

So what do you learn in the Osage?
  • you ought to read your Bible once in a while
  • Have a Bible in your house protects NO ONE from the tragedy of HELL
  • Don't be critical of folks who have a Bible because they may not know what is in it, it might have a check in it
  • What if it had a check which said, "this is your ticket to heaven so bring it when you come, John 3:16"?  Would you be ready to meet your maker?
Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com


lsot $40 dollar check for a couple years.

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