Mike and I finally made our flossie run on Thursday. The verdict: a great egg and cheese sandwich, and the bologna had a nice crust on the outside, but it was so salty. It was like someone had taken one of those water softening blocks of salt and stuck it right in between the bread!
So we studied the second half of Philippians 3 and headed to work. We mixed and prepared the concrete and Glen and Tammy's house that morning and constructed rails for the ramp. Tammy's younger sister actually prepared a cake for us. I scraped off the frosting and enjoyed the yellow cake itself. There is plenty of pleasure to be found in sweets when chocolate is not involved.
Carolyn and I spent Thursday afternoon working in Owsley County, which is even smaller than Jackson County. Maureen, from the Jackson volunteer house, picked us up at our work site around 11:30 and we headed east towards the town of Booneville. Although we took a longer route than we planned, we got to explore the land more. I was even more struck by the rolling hills and how the trees sparkled; the colors were just so bright and so varied. It was even more noticeable here than on 421.
We met Claire, who works at the CAP office in Booneville. She is originally from Nebraska and now lives near Gray Hawk with her husband and family. The four of us headed up to the food pantry, where Bridget was waiting. We set up card tables and started unpacking large cardboard boxes of food. Basically, people from Owsley who meet certain income requirements come here once a month for the food distribution. Carolyn, Maureen, Claire, and a few locals packed the boxes with 2 bottles of tomato juice, 3 bags of cubed chicken, 4 cans of corn, 3 packages of evaporated milk, American cheese, 2 cans of fruit, rice, 2 cereals, peanut butter, a bag of apples, and a 10-pound bag of potatoes. Billy, another local, and I were in charge of carrying these boxes out to the people's cars. One of the great things was I got to talk to these people as I carried their groceries. All I had to do was make a comment about the great weather that day and they would just take it from there. A smile and a warm goodbye was all they really needed. Also, Jackie is Billy's wife, and she's in school 20 hours a week, working towards her GED. She was a real pleasure to talk to.
We worked from 1-3 and Clara drove me back to Booneville before taking me back to Gray Hawk; Maureen drove Carolyn. We arrived around 3 and since we had to drop off the cardboard tables in the man-cave, I finally got a glimpse inside. It's one big room with a lot of church benches, a few beds, and a couple of game tables like pool, air hockey, and foosball. I played pool against Jimmy, who beat me when I felt into a cold streak at the end. Joe then offered to take me on and he had me schooled. He was pulling off trick shots that left me shaking my head. All I could do was compliment him, maybe I was hoping he'd get a little over-confident. Well he the 8-ball left and I had sunk just three of my eight balls. Lo and behold, he scratched on the 8-ball, so I won!
I headed back across the street to have some quiet reflection time. What sticks with me right now is the strong sense of community here, the simplicity of life, though it seems a little inconvenient too, and the friendliness. I just don't know if I could handle driving an hour to a good grocery store if I lived down there though!
That night, after a grill-out, Joe told his story about how he came to believe in God and he broke down midway. Even though he had said a lot of things about his past that we didn't always know if we should believe (performed on Ed Sullivan Show, wrote a book), we could tell he was very genuine in that moment. He has been coming to KY for 19 years and since he's Catholic, we wonder if that's a part of his penance. I don't know, it's between him and the Lord. I just hope he's at peace.
We took some time for closing reflections, where I made sure to point out Carolyn's willingness to work, Barry's heart, and the J-Crew for their resemblance to my Dad's side of the family. I then proceeded to get my butt whipped in four more games of dominoes. I swear, as much as I may admire her I will never sit to the left of Nancy during those games again.
By 10 pm, I still felt good enough to stay up a while longer. But with a heavy dose of driving on Friday and a visit to the Creation Museum in the works, another attempt at sleep seemed to make sense. So that's where I headed. I finished my book on Father Beiting, completed my Philippians 4 devotional, and hit the sack one more. Slept a little better. Just wasn't like sleeping at home though.
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