- Oct 20, 2000
- 2,963
- 2
Bare with me on this, it may get a little long winded and be a little hard to follow. This is a Christmas story I encountered today, or perhaps I should say Tigger (my daughter Hailey) encountered.
I have to back up a couple of weeks for this to make sense. It all started out as a toy drive that we do at the Waco Eagles Motorcycle Club here in Waco TX of which I'm the president. We had our annual "Play Day" to raise toys for the needy. We had the best year ever from this event and took in quite a haul. So much this year that we couldn't transport it out so we locked it up in the building at the club. Enter the thieves and clean us out. Lost beside the toys was also a lot of personal property and damages, some of which I've already told regarding my guitar post. That's a different story. The short of it is we got a lot of support from everywhere and ended up with more than enough than we anticipated. On to the rest of the story.
This story involves the last toy donation / delivery we made today. I thought we had taken care of every family that we could find that needed help this year. Days of shopping had foregone and it was finally time to concentrate on personal obligations, but 1st it was time for a quick bite to eat. I ran to the house and picked up now 17 year old Hailey. We finally agreed that Panara Bread would be a good place for a snack where we could sit down and eat as well discuss Hailey's up coming college plans. We walked up to the counter to place our order and was greeted by a less than friendly worker. She wasn't rude but displayed more of a sour attitude as if she was put out with the world. Hailey quickly placed her order while I was a little bit more on the undecisive side. The lady sort of pushed me to the side with her eyes and helped the next person in line. Normally I would have spoken up but today I didn't. I turned to the lady beside me and asked if she had finished her Christmas shopping to which her reply was Yes, finally! I then turned to the lady worker and asked her the same question to which her reply was ...um .. NO!. She said "I didn't get to buy anything for my grandkids and probably won't". I then asked if it was because she didn't have time to which she said, NO, THAT'S NOT IT!. After a little prying I got out of her that she didn't have the money. I then asked how old they were and perhaps I could help. I told her I had plenty of gifts she could have. She looked at me puzzled and said in a sort of sarcastic manner, those are for your family, not mine! I replied, NO, they are for your family, NOT MINE! It took a little convincing as I explained what my club had been doing. She was getting off work in 5 minutes and I convinced her to stay and wait for me to come back. About 30 minutes later I returned with the majority of the toys we had left that had no home. As I opened the door to my car, toys began falling out. Hailey & I worked diligently to pack her trunk and back seat of her car while the lady fought back tears. One of the items was a teddy bear which the woman picked up and claimed for herself. Before we finished loading her car, she was jumping up and down, clapping her hands, and hugging us both numerous times, all the while still fighting to hold back the tears. I instructed her to tell her family that she simply stopped on the way home to pick up a few things for the grandkids. She kept repeating "I'll never forget you or this day". As we finished loading and got in our car to drive away, I saw the woman sitting in her car hugging the teddy bear and crying her eyes out. Hailey turned to me, fighting back tears herself, and said, "Daddy, I don't want a Christmas present, I already got mine just now". "I feel warm inside!."
I told her that's what it's about.
Merry Christmas yall!
I have to back up a couple of weeks for this to make sense. It all started out as a toy drive that we do at the Waco Eagles Motorcycle Club here in Waco TX of which I'm the president. We had our annual "Play Day" to raise toys for the needy. We had the best year ever from this event and took in quite a haul. So much this year that we couldn't transport it out so we locked it up in the building at the club. Enter the thieves and clean us out. Lost beside the toys was also a lot of personal property and damages, some of which I've already told regarding my guitar post. That's a different story. The short of it is we got a lot of support from everywhere and ended up with more than enough than we anticipated. On to the rest of the story.
This story involves the last toy donation / delivery we made today. I thought we had taken care of every family that we could find that needed help this year. Days of shopping had foregone and it was finally time to concentrate on personal obligations, but 1st it was time for a quick bite to eat. I ran to the house and picked up now 17 year old Hailey. We finally agreed that Panara Bread would be a good place for a snack where we could sit down and eat as well discuss Hailey's up coming college plans. We walked up to the counter to place our order and was greeted by a less than friendly worker. She wasn't rude but displayed more of a sour attitude as if she was put out with the world. Hailey quickly placed her order while I was a little bit more on the undecisive side. The lady sort of pushed me to the side with her eyes and helped the next person in line. Normally I would have spoken up but today I didn't. I turned to the lady beside me and asked if she had finished her Christmas shopping to which her reply was Yes, finally! I then turned to the lady worker and asked her the same question to which her reply was ...um .. NO!. She said "I didn't get to buy anything for my grandkids and probably won't". I then asked if it was because she didn't have time to which she said, NO, THAT'S NOT IT!. After a little prying I got out of her that she didn't have the money. I then asked how old they were and perhaps I could help. I told her I had plenty of gifts she could have. She looked at me puzzled and said in a sort of sarcastic manner, those are for your family, not mine! I replied, NO, they are for your family, NOT MINE! It took a little convincing as I explained what my club had been doing. She was getting off work in 5 minutes and I convinced her to stay and wait for me to come back. About 30 minutes later I returned with the majority of the toys we had left that had no home. As I opened the door to my car, toys began falling out. Hailey & I worked diligently to pack her trunk and back seat of her car while the lady fought back tears. One of the items was a teddy bear which the woman picked up and claimed for herself. Before we finished loading her car, she was jumping up and down, clapping her hands, and hugging us both numerous times, all the while still fighting to hold back the tears. I instructed her to tell her family that she simply stopped on the way home to pick up a few things for the grandkids. She kept repeating "I'll never forget you or this day". As we finished loading and got in our car to drive away, I saw the woman sitting in her car hugging the teddy bear and crying her eyes out. Hailey turned to me, fighting back tears herself, and said, "Daddy, I don't want a Christmas present, I already got mine just now". "I feel warm inside!."
I told her that's what it's about.
Merry Christmas yall!
