I love life! Life fascinates the fool out of me! (Pat says that I still have enough left to get by!) I’ll warn you right up front. I don’t know what kind of Life Lessons you’ll get out of this piece. My purpose in sharing this week is to challenge you to get out of your rut (if you’re in one) and participate in what’s going on around you. You may find it fascinating and actually discover that you’re able to plant some gospel seeds here and there. I realize that with many of the evil things that happen to folks at the hands of strangers, most of us have developed a real aversion to speaking to anyone whom we don’t know.

Several months ago I was on the receiving end of an e-mail from my shirttail cousin, Mickey. Now, that isn’t the name given to her when she arrived. Her “real” name is Beverly. I’m also not going into how she ended up as “Mickey”, but our families have a lot of permanently “nicknamed” people. There’s Butch, Duck, Skeeter, Skip, Lulu, Pappy, Fat, Dutch, Little Gerry (a girl), Chub, Hoppy, Chip, Dr. Dirt, and Chunky Monkey, just to name a few!

Mickey wanted to see if we could meet in Savannah, GA for a day. She was coming back to Beaufort, SC for her 50th high school reunion. I hadn’t seen her for at least 45 years. There wasn’t time for a flight to Sarasota and back, so I took her up on her offer.

Thanks to the “miracle” of cell phones, we were able to hook up on Sunday a couple of weeks ago. We had a couple of rooms very near the Riverfront District. The street alongside the river is paved with ballast stones that helped keep empty sailing ships upright in the water on the trip across the Atlantic. Back in the early days, there were stalls built in which a huge variety of goods were stored.

Today, those stalls have been converted into shops. Hundreds of people a day cover the cobblestones and visit the little stores. Two huge paddle wheelers adorn the wharf. I didn’t get to ride on one of them, but made a note to do that on a future trip.

A great serendipity occurred when our daughter, Kathleen, and her husband, William, let me know that they’d already made plans to be in Savannah for a few days about the same time. After Mickey flew home to California, Kathleen, William, and I got to spend a day together. Now I’m going to share some little vignettes from my two days in Savannah.

Each evening, after everyone else was tucked into beddy-bye, I took Sparky (my Electric Transportation Machine) and headed back down to the Wharf. Late evenings are my time, when I’m home or on the road.

During the day with Mickey, we went from shop to shop. One of the stores featured tee shirts and teddy bears. Mickey is an expert on teddy bears. She has a whole line of bears which she’s sketched over the years. She sells them in a variety of formats. She has magnet bears, hanging bears, bears on greeting cards, etc. Yes, there IS a PapaJ Bear. He is the best looking of all her bears. Before we left the area, the manager of the Bear Store had one of Mickey’s catalogs and had been invited to become a dealer.

We drove out to The Tybee Island Lighthouse. It was overcast and misty. At the lighthouse, we noticed a photographer taking pictures of a lovely young woman in a beautiful bridal gown. We asked her if this was her wedding day. Well, it wasn’t, but her fiance was due home in a few days from a long hitch in the military and she wanted to give him a present of these pictures. We also saw a woman walking two dogs. They looked a little like small Greyhounds or Whippets. When we stopped and visited with her, she said that they were French Greyhounds. Might have been, but they looked a little Heinz 57 to me.

The first night, while exploring on my own, I found a trumpet playing street musician. He was standing under an overhead passageway playing really great music. I hated to interrupt his most excellent playing, but wanted to learn more about him. He worked days and played for donations at night. I believe he would have played if there were no donations.

A block away, there was a saxophone player. As I rode up, he was playing “Amazing Grace”. He wasn’t very good at all, but I did strike up a conversation. He asked me if I had a request. I asked him if he knew “Up A Lazy River”. He looked delighted and nodded “Yes!” Then, he played “Amazing Grace”. When I pointed out that that wasn’t the song I’d requested, he asked for another request. I asked him to play “Red Sails In The Sunset”. He nodded affirmatively and began squeaking and squawking out “Amazing Grace”. I had to tell him that if he ever wanted to have much money in his then empty jar, he needed to learn some more songs.

I visited with an off-duty policeman who was moonlighting as a security guard for a huge convention center and hotel that floated on a man-made island in the middle of the Savannah River. Access was by ferry only. During the day, part of his duty was to help find dead bodies of folks who tried to swim in the swift current. Very interesting man.

On the second day, Kathleen, William and I did the Wharf thing again. When we came to the Tee and Bear store, William asked if they had any of Mickey’s Bear Cards. We had a good time with the little bit of family promotion! We also expanded our walking/riding tour to the city market area. It was there, in another bear store, that I found the Raspberry Taco Sauce. Now I’ve been reared on Mexican food since not long after I was born. I’ve been to Mexico many times. I thought I’d seen every possible combination of Mexican food known to anyone. I’d never seen Raspberry Taco Sauce. The combination just didn’t sound all that appetizing to me!

On the second night, I headed back down to the cobblestones. On this trip, I talked with another street performer. He’d only been in town a couple of weeks. He juggled and rode a very tall unicycle. I didn’t get to see his act, but thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with him. Turns out, he was a believer. We shared quite a bit about the goodness of the Lord. Jesus had reached him while he was doing his “thing” on the streets of San Francisco.

I also came across a friendly young couple from Japan. They spoke nearly flawless English. I saw an opportunity to steer the conversation, ever so gently, toward the Lord. They beat me to it. A missionary had led their grandparents to Jesus and their whole family were Christians. That was neat.

Finally, the day I left, I came across a hitchhiker standing on a corner. He was carrying a sign that said, “Hitchhiking For Jesus”. Well, I just couldn’t pass that one up. I pulled into an adjoining parking lot. I asked him exactly what he meant with his sign. I told him that I’d heard of fund-raising devices such as walk-a-thons, rock-a-thons, swim-a-thons, etc., but I’d never heard of “Hitchhiking for Jesus”. He explained that he loved Jesus and did everything he did “for” Jesus. I was relieved. I thought maybe he thought he could hitchhike TO Jesus! (g)

Well, that’s it. My two day adventure to Savannah. Are YOU in a rut? Please give some thought to my rather random recollections. Would appreciate hearing from you.  Use the “Leave a Reply” box below and drop me your thoughts!

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