People Who were Kind to Me

As Guinever likes to tease me, I am a linerar thinker so I like to order these sort of memories chronological for the most part. I do jump around a little bit. But on the topic of who has been kind to me. I feel I must begin early because the list is so long. As a little boy, under 6, and until I was old enough to fend for myself, my mother had a babysitter who looked after us while she and my dad taught school. The two women were Mary Walker and Minetta Huber. Mary's husband was Roscoe. He was a janitor at the high school where my dad taught. He was a very kind man as was Mary a kind grandmother type. They had one son, Neil of whom they were very proud as he was an excellent student at the top of his class. These women made two things that have persisted in my life as favorite deserts. THe first is red velvet cake which she made with multiple layers for birthdays. Mary made this and it was heavenly. Minetta made a desert called "Cherry Delight". It was wonderful too. Graham cracker crust, with a bed of sweet cream cheese covered by cherries some cherrie jel. Whipped cream atop it. OMG. Minetta had a son, Billy Huber who was not such a great student. He resented my presence I suspect. He went on to become the chief of police for Sellersburg for a few years. Then at some point he faded from public life. I don't know what happened to him. Well, I started off for kindergarten. 5 years old and a half of a day at the school. What I remember in the way of kindness was a fellow kindergartener named Clinnie Kincaid patiently taught me how to tie my own shoes. Clinnie and I did not continue through the years as great friends or anything. He was an excellent musician and learned how to play rock and roll guitar and drifted into a different group than I hung with. But I have always always had a place in my heart for this kindness he showed me Next in my life was my second grade teacher. Mrs. Wells. She was a saintly woman. She certainly knew just how to handle 2nd graders. With kindness and love she taught us the basic building blocks. We had learned to read in first grade and now we were becoming better readers as we went along. But here is the thing. She lit a fire in me that has I burned all of my lifeand made me a lifelong reader. She achieved this by reading "Charlotte's Web" by EB White. It was a special time of the day when we would put our books and notepads down. She would read a chapter a day from the book. I can't overstate how enchanted I was with this book. I loved Wilbur and Charlotte was so wonderful...I think I saw Mrs. Wells as a kind of Charlotte. When the end of the book came, and Charlotte died. I cryed. Then came the renewal of life as Wilbur watched her children hatch and send up their little kite webs and fly away...but one or two stayed to be friends with Wilbur. I loved this story. After the book was done...a day or two passed and I realized how much I missed not being in Wilbur and Charlotte's world. I asked Mrs. Wells if I could borrow her copy and read it over myself. She allowed me this privilege and I read my first book. THIS changed my life. Mildred Wells. So very kind to me. I have been an avid reader ever since that day. I will always love Mrs. Wells. Another gracious and kind woman to me was Ruby Funk. My wife's maternal grandmother. Ruby was a widow when I started dating Guinever. She was kind enough , when we were just starting dating, to invite us to vacation with her in Boca Raton. I was still a young man and not used to being treated as an adult by 'real' adults. But, I will never forget how after Guinever and I spent the morning on the beach outside the condo, we came in for lunch. Ruby served me a liverwurst sandwich on rye. chips and a cold beer. Oh my. There was just always something exceptionally kind about Ruby and I miss her. She took me aside one day to gauge my intentions regarding Guinever. I suppose I passed her test. She ended our talk as follows, "If you choose to stay with her, understand it's going to be a rocky road." I laughed about it later...but she was right. I think it may be true that real committment is always a rocky road. I