Dear Gehrig and Eliana,
Well, here it is 3:30 PM on a
Monday and I am sitting here at the office writing when I should be home at “Camp PK
Wasn’t Aunt Brittany
and Uncle Sae’s wedding the most fabulous event down in Austin
Of course there was a black
spot on the event which was really unfortunate.
It seems thieves took the opportunity to break into four vehicles in the
Onion Creek Country Club parking lot, mine and one other of our wedding guests,
and two out of town golfers. Aside from
my brand new GPS and my cell phone, all I lost was a relatively inexpensive
cell phone charger. Unfortunately, your
mom did not fair so well. She had left
her travel bag in the car with her wallet and all her jewelry. Not to mention the inconvenience of having to
cancel and reinstate all her credit cards and get a new driver’s license, she
lost over $ 8,000.00 worth of cash and valuables, some of which can never be replaced. This included the diamond stud earrings your
Granny and I gave her when she graduated from The University of Texas. This made us all very sad.
When I was 12 years old I had
a paper route. It took me all over Pomona , the Southern California
city I grew up in, to deliver about 110 papers each day. I earned pretty good money to supplement my
dollar per week allowance and it kept me in candy and Bubble-Up. Every afternoon, after school, I rode my bike
to the paper station, picked up and folded my papers, put them in a double
sided bag over my shoulders and peddled the 7 miles of my route. It took about two hours.
About half way through my
route was a little neighborhood grocery store that I used to stop into for a
soft drink and, maybe, a bag of peanuts.
One day I was checking out and put my money up on counter for the
grocer. He was there alone and I think
he did everything from stock the shelves to run the register. As he turned around to deposit my coins in
the register, I spied a package of wintergreen LifeSavers ® in a little display
at eye level. I wanted the mints and I
had the nickel in my pocket to pay for them but I didn’t want to part with that
nickel. So I reached up and took a roll,
palmed them in my hand and put it back down at my side just as the grocer
turned around.
He looked at me and I
immediately felt his penetrating stare.
“Is there anything else you want?, he asked. As my face turned beet red I lied and said,
“No”. He paused for a long moment and
then said, “Not even those LifeSavers in your hand?” “Oh, these”, I said, “Yes, I want these as
well…uh, how much are they?” He told me
and I fished the nickel, hands trembling, out of my pocket and offered it to
him. He took it and looked at me with
those eyes and I turned to go. “Son”,
the man said sternly, and I turned back to face him, my knees trembling, “those
LifeSavers belong to me. They don’t
belong to you until you pay me for them.
Don’t you ever try to steal from me again or I will have you arrested…do
you understand me?” I stammered that I
did and nearly wet my pants as I turned and bolted out of his store. I got on my bike and rode like the wind to my
next throw and made it home in record time.
Which kind of brings me to my next pearl which I will “borrow” from the
Ten Commandments.
Twentieth Pearl
I was mortified and
humiliated. I felt awful that I tried to
steal something and still to this day cannot figure out why I even tried. But instead of wasting time trying to figure
out how in the world that man saw me take those mints, I vowed then and there
never to steal anything from anybody ever again. And that experience made me insensitive to
anyone who steals anything from another person.
People who have never learned
this lesson take things that don’t belong to them everyday. Billions of dollars of merchandise, cars,
cash and even identities are stolen each year and whether it is done physically
or over the Internet, those thefts are a violation of another person’s rights
and liberties as well as their possessions.
And that is a crime as heinous as any other and more than most.
If you want something that
you don’t have, you buy it. If you
cannot afford it, you work hard to earn enough money so you can buy it. If it is out of your reach, then you will
have to live with the disappointment of not owning it. I hope you will never have the circumstance
arise where you feel tempted to take something that does not belong to you, but
if you do, listen to your Grandpa who learned a long time ago, don’t do it. Not only will I be disappointed if you do,
but so will you.
Well, Camp PK is over on
Friday and we will be flying back home with you to New Jersey for 10 more days
until we have to return to Texas. But
Granny and I will always remember your time here in 2008 and look forward to
your month with us next year.
I love you bunches and
bunches,
Grandpa Jud
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