A&F

I know now that the man who sat with me on the old wooden stairs that hot summer night over thirty-five years ago was not a tall man. But to a five-year-old, he was a giant. We sat side by side, watching the sun go down behind the old Texaco service station across the busy street. A street that I was never allowed to cross unless accompanied by an adult, or at the very least, an older sibling .Cherry-scented smoke from Grampy’s pipe kept the hungry mosquitoes at bay while gray, wispy swirls danced around our heads. Now and again, he blew a smoke ring and laughed as I tried to target the hole with my finger. I, clad in a cool summer nightie, and Grampy, his sleeveless T-shirt, sat watching the traffic. We counted cars and tried to guess the color of the next one to turn the corner.Once again, I was caught in the middle of circumstances. The fourth born of six children, it was not uncommon that I was either too young or too old for something. This night I was both. While my two baby brothers slept inside the house, my three older siblings played with friends around the corner, where I was not allowed to go. I stayed with Grampy, and that was okay with me. I was where I wanted to be. My grandfather was baby-sitting while my mother, father and grandmother went out.

Thirsty?” Grampy asked, never removing the pipe from his mouth.

” Yes,” was my reply.” How would you like to run over to the gas station there and get yourself a bottle of coke?”

I couldn’t believe my ears. Had I heard right? Was he talking to me? On my family’s modest income, coke was not a part of our budget or diet. A few tantalizing sips was all I had ever had, and certainly never my own bottle.

“Okay,” I replied shyly, already wondering how I would get across the street. Surely Grampy was going to come with me.

Grampy stretched his long leg out straight and reached his huge hand deep into the pocket. I could hear the familiar jangling of the loose change he always carried. Opening his fist, he exposed a mound of silver coins. There must have been a million dollars there. He instructed me to pick out a dime. After he deposited the rest of the change back into his pocket, he stood up.

“Okay,” he said, helping me down the stairs and to the curb, ” I’m going to stay here and keep an ear out for the babies. I’ll tell you when it’s safe to cross. You go over to the coke machine, get your coke and come back out. Wait for me to tell you when it’s safe to cross back.”

My heart pounded. I clutched  my dime tightly in my sweaty palm. Excitement took my breath away.

Grampy held my hand tightly. Together we looked up the street and down, and back up again. He stepped off the curb and told me it was safe to cross. He let go of my hand and I ran. I ran faster than I had ever run before. The street seemed wide. I wondered if I would make it to the other side. Reaching the other side, I turned to find Grampy. There he was, standing exactly where I had left him, smiling proudly. I waved.

“Go on, hurry up,” he yelled.

My heart pounded wildly as I walked inside the dark garage.I had been inside the garage before with my father. My surroundings were familiar. I heard the Coca-Cola machine motor humming  even before I saw it. I walked directly to the big old red-and-white dispenser  . I knew where to insert my dime. I had seen it done before and had fantasized about this moment many times.

The big old monster greedily accepted my dime, and I heard the bottles shift. On tiptoes I reached up and opened the heavy door. There they were: one neat row of thick green bottles, necks staring directly at me, and ice cold from the refrigeration. I held the door open with my shoulder and grabbed one. With a quick yank  , I pulled it free from its bondage. Another one immediately took its place. The bottle was cold in my sweaty hands. I will never forget the feeling of the cool glass on my skin. With two hands, I positioned the bottleneck under the heavy brass opener that was bolted to the wall. The cap dropped into an old wooden box, and I reached in to retrieve it. I was cold and bent in the middle, but I knew I needed to have this souvenir  . Coke in hand, I proudly marched back out into the early evening dusk. Grampy was waiting patiently. He smiled.

“Stop right there,” he yelled. One or two cars sped by me, and once again, Grampy stepped off the curb  .”Come on, now,” he said, “Run.” I did. Cool brown foam sprayed my hands.”Don’t ever do that alone,” he warned. I held the coke bottle tightly, fearful he would make me pour it into a cup, ruining this dream come true. He didn’t. One long swallow of the cold beverage  cooled my sweating body. I don’t think I ever felt so proud.

On July 27th, 1940, Bugs Bunny made his “official” debut in the Warner Brothers animated cartoon “A Wild Hare.”
On this date:
In 1789, Congress established the Department of Foreign Affairs, the forerunner of the Department of State.
In 1794, French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown and placed under arrest; he was executed the following day.
In 1861, Union General George B. McClellan was put in command of the Army of the Potomac.
In 1866, Cyrus W. Field finally succeeded, after two failures, in laying the first underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe.
In 1953, the Korean War armistice was signed at Panmunjom, ending three years of fighting.
In 1960, Vice President Nixon was nominated for president at the Republican national convention in Chicago.
In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted 27-to-eleven to recommend President Nixon’s impeachment on a charge that he had personally engaged in a “course of conduct” designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case.
In 1976, Air Force veteran Ray Brennan became the first person to die of so-called “Legionnaire’s Disease” following an American Legion convention in Philadelphia.
In 1980, on day 267 of the Iranian hostage crisis, the deposed Shah of Iran died at a military hospital outside Cairo, Egypt, at age 60.
In 1996, terror struck the Atlanta Olympics as a pipe bomb exploded at the public Centennial Olympic Park, killing one person and injuring more than 100.
Ten years ago: Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer vetoed a tough abortion bill passed by his state’s legislature. A mistrial was declared in Raymond Buckey’s retrial on charges of molesting children at the McMartin Pre-School in California.
Five years ago: The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington by President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young-sam.
One year ago: The House approved President Clinton’s one-year extension of normal trade with China. In an overwhelming defeat for major league umpires, their threatened walkout collapsed when all of the umpires withdrew their resignations; however, about one-third of them ended up losing their jobs anyway. A flash flood in Switzerland claimed the lives of 21 people, 18 of them tourists. With Air Force Colonel Eileen Collins at the controls, space shuttle “Columbia” returned to Earth, ending a five-day mission.

Once upon a time, King Brahmadatta was ruling in Benares, in northern India. The Enlightenment Being

was born as his son, the prince. Being quite intelligent, he completed his entire education by the

age of 16. So, at this early age, his father made him second in command .
In those days, most people in Benares worshipped gods. They were very superstitious  . They thought

gods caused things to happen to them, rather than being results of their own actions. So they would

pray to these gods and ask special favors. They would ask for a lucky marriage, or the birth of a

child, or riches, or fame.
They would promise the gods that, if their prayers were answered, they would pay them by making

offerings to them. In addition to flowers and perfumes, they imagined the gods desired the sacrifice

of animals. So, when they thought the gods had helped them, they killed many animals — goats, lambs,

chickens, pigs and others.
The prince saw all this and thought, “These helpless animals are also subjects of the king, so I must

protect them. The people commit these unwholesome acts due to ignorance and superstition. This cannot

be true religion.
For true religion offers life as it really is, not killing. True religion offers peace of mind, not

cruelty.
“I fear these people believe in their superstitions too strongly to give them up. This is very sad.

But perhaps their beliefs can at least be put to good use. Some day I will become king. So I must

begin to make a plan to let their superstitions help them. If they must offer sacrifices, let them

kill their own greed and hatred, instead of these helpless animals! Then the whole kingdom will

benefit.”
So the prince devised a clever long term plan. Every so often, he rode in his grand chariot to a

popular banyan tree just outside the city. This was a huge tree, where the people prayed and made

offerings to a god they thought lived there. The prince came down from his chariot and made the same

offerings as the others — incense , flowers, perfumes and water — but not animal sacrifices.
In this way he made a great show, and the news spread about his offerings. Pretty soon, all the

people thought he was a true believer in the great god of the banyan tree.
In due time, King Brahmadatta died and his son became king. He ruled as a righteous  king, and the

people benefited. So all his subjects came to trust and respect him as a just and honorable king.
Then one day, he decided it was the right time to carry out the rest of his plan. So he called all

the leading citizens of Benares to the royal assembly hall. He asked them, “Worthy ministers and

loyal subjects, do you know how I was able to make sure that I would become king?” No one could

answer.
He said, “Do you remember that I often gave wonderful sweet offerings to the great god of the banyan

tree?” “Yes, our lord,” they said.
The king continued, “At each of those times, I made a promise to the powerful god of the tree. I

prayed, ‘Oh mighty one, if you make me King of Benares, I will offer a special sacrifice to you, far

greater than flowers and perfumes.’
 ”Since I am now the king, you all can see for yourselves that the god has answered my prayers. So

now I must keep my promise and offer the special sacrifice.”
All those in the assembly hall agreed. They said, “We must prepare this sacrifice at once. What

animals do you wish to kill?”
The king said, “My dear subjects , I am glad you are so willing to cooperate. I promised the great

god of the banyan tree that I would sacrifice anyone who fails to practice the Five Training Steps.

That is, anyone who destroys life, takes what is not given, does wrong in sexual ways, speaks

falsely, or loses his mind from alcohol. I promised that, if any do these things, I will offer their

guts  , and their flesh and blood on the great god’s altar  !”
Being so superstitious, all those in the hall agreed that this must be done, or the god would surely

punish the king and the kingdom.
The king thought, “Ah, such is the power of superstition that these people have lost all common

sense! They cannot see that, since the first training step is to give up killing, if I sacrificed one

of my subjects, I would be next on the altar! And such is the power of superstition that I could make

such a promise, and never have to carry it out!”
So, with full confidence in the power of superstition, the king said to the leading citizens, “Go

into all the kingdom and announce the promise I made to the god. Then proclaim  that the first one-

thousand who break any of the training steps will have the honor of being sacrificed, to keep the

king’s promise.”
Lo and behold , the people of Benares became famous for carefully practicing the Five Training Steps.

And the good king, who knew his subjects so well, sacrificed no one.
The moral is: Sacrifice your own wrong doing, not some helpless animal.

There were once three army-surgeons who reckoned  that they had nothing more to learn about the art

of surgery. They were on their travels., and stopped for the night at an inn.

The landlord asked them where they had come from and where they were going, and they answered, “We’re

on our travels and living by our skill.” “Well, just show me what you do,” said the landlord. The

first said he would cut off his hand and put it back on again next morning and make it heal; the

second said he would tear out his heart and put it back in again next morning so that it would heal;

the third said he would gouge out  his eyes, and they too would heal when he replaced them next

morning. “If you can do that,” said the landlord, “then you’ve nothing more to learn.”

Now they had with them an ointment  which was able to close and heal any wound they smeared it on,

and they always carried the flask containing it wherever they went. So they cut from their bodies the

hand and the heart and the eyes as they had said they would, put them all together on a plate and

gave it to the landlord; and the landlord gave it to a maidservant, telling her to put it aside in

the larder and keep it carefully. But this maidservant secretly had a sweetheart who was a soldier.

So when the landlord and the three surgeons and everyone else in the house were asleep, the soldier

came and asked her for something to eat. So the girl opened the larder and brought in something from

it, and she was so much in love with him that she forgot to close the larder door. She sat down with

her sweetheart at the table and they had a good chat, but as she sat there without a care in the

world the cat came creeping in , found the larder open, snatched the hand and the heart and the eyes

that belonged to the three surgeons and made off with them. So when the soldier had finished eating

and the girl got up to clear away the dishes and lock the larder, she saw at once that the plate the

landlord had given her to look after was empty. She took fright and said to her young man: “Oh,

heaven save me, what am I to do? The hand’s gone, and the heart and the eyes are gone, whatever will

happen to me tomorrow morning!” “Stop crying,” he said, “I’ll get you out of this. There’s a thief

hanging on the gallows out there, and I’ll cut his hand off; which hand was it?” “The right hand.” So

the girl gave him a sharp knife and he went outside, cut the poor sinner’s right hand off and brought

it in. Then he seized the cat and gouged out its eyes; now all that was needed was the heart.

“Haven’t you just slaughtered some pigs and put their carcasses  in the cellar?” “Yes,” said the

girl, “Well, that’s all right then,” said the soldier, and he went down to the cellar and came back

with a pig’s heart. The maid put all the things together on a plate and left it in the larder: then

her sweetheart took his leave and she went to bed thinking all was well.

When the three surgeons got up next morning, they told the maid to fetch them the plate with the hand

and the heart and the eyes. So she fetched it out of the cupboard, and the first surgeon held the

thief’s hand in place and smeared  the join with his ointment, whereupon the hand at once grew back

on to his arm. The second took the cat’s eyes and fitted them into his head, and the third put the

pig’s heart in place. The landlord stood and watched their skill with admiration, saying that he had

never seen such a thing in his life and that he would praise and recommend them to all and sundry  .

Then they paid their bill and travelled on.

As they were walking along, the one who had the pig’s heart kept on leaving the others; every time

they passed some corner he would trot over to it and root around in it like a pig. The other two

tried to hold him back by the coat tails, but it was no good, he kept running off to wherever the

filth was thickest on the ground. The second of them also began to behave strangely, rubbing his eyes

and saying to the other: “My dear fellow, what’s the matter with me? These aren’t my eyes, I can’t

see a thing, for heaven’s sake one of you hive me your arm or I’ll fall.” And they struggled on till

evening, when they came to another inn. They all went into the parlor , and there in one corner a

rich gentleman was sitting at the table counting money. The surgeon with the thief’s hand sidled 

round behind him, his arm twitched a few times and finally, when the ,had his back turned, he reached

out and snatched a handful of coins from the pile. One of the others saw this and said: “My dear

fellow, what are you doing? It’s wrong to steal, you ought to be ashamed.” “Yes, but I can’t stop

myself,” said his friend. “My hand keeps twitching and just has to help itself whether I want to or

not.” Then they went to bed, and as they lay there it was so dark that you couldn’t have seen your

hand in front of your face. Suddenly the one with the cat’s eyes woke up, wakened the others and

said: “My dear friends, look at this, do you see all these white mice running about?” The other two

sat up in bed but couldn’t see a thing. Then he said: “There’s something wrong with us: we didn’t

back our own parts, that landlord cheated us and we must go back to him.”

So next morning they set off back and told the landlord that their right organs hadn’t been returned

to them: one of them had a thief’s hand, the second cat’s eyes and the third a pig’s heart. The

landlord said that it must be the maid’s fault and was going to call her, but when the girl had seen

the three surgeons returning she had fled through the back door, and she didn’t reappear. Then the

three of them told the landlord that unless he paid them a great deal of money they’d make a bonfire

of  his house; so he gave them all he had and all he could raise, and off they went with it. It was

enough to keep them for the rest of their lives, but they’d still rather have had their own organs

back.

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