The friend -- the policeman – and REAL life

 Early interesting Cars:

 

1937 Ford Convertible, One of the early cars with doors labeled by the public as 'suicide' doors. The reason was they opened into the wind and theoretically could pull an occupant out of the vehicle if opened at a high speed.

For today:

I met a friend from my youth in the grocery store awhile back. He was from a family who ‘kicked the kids out (told them it was time to be on their own) once they graduated high school or started working.’  Much like the birds who empty the nest when the young ones can fly. Scot was the only boy I knew who had that background. So he worked in the cotton mill and rented a room in a boarding house down town. (Let me say there is nothing wrong with that philosophy if done with concern and love. I never once heard Scotty complain about his life.)

 

We pulled our buggies over to the side and just talked. He is now retired is a  Sunday School Teacher at a local Baptist church.  He left the mill and became a licensed plumber and has been successful.

 

He was telling me about his SS class last week. “You remember Claude Setzer?   Of course I did. He was a mentor and hero of mine. He was also a leading local police officer. I knew his family also. Sherry knew them most of her life.

 

Scotty went on to say, “Jack I was telling my class of men I had known who displayed the real Christian attitude and went the extra mile last Sunday.” He paused and I could tell it was to keep from crying, “I used to drink too much. You know the beer joints across the Catawba River. I went over there on the weekends. On Saturday night I would drive back across the river after drinking too much. A police car would start tagging along just past the bridge and follow me to the boarding house. When I got out of the car, the driver would tap his horn, wave and drive off.” Scotty said that happened MOST weekends and soon he learned it was Claude.

 

A car Claude might have driven 1958 Dodge.

He continued, “Jack, I met Claude later, out of uniform in Roses and asked him why he didn’t just give me a ticket, he surprised me by saying, ‘it wasn’t necessary, I just wanted to make sure you got home safe. I knew you would know I was behind you and you would try to be very careful.”

 

It is SWEET (my grandson Stephen’s word) when you learn of noble, Christian attitudes. This is a good country we live in. There are wonderful, unheralded people, it is good to know more about them. Claude and wife Betty have passed on, I still see the family around Belmont and think of Claude.

 

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