Well folks. I usually hope that my humble scribblings will bring a smile, but I was asked what happened to Raymond and are we still close.
A bit of history: Once a teacher told Raymond's mother that Raymond was "slow", when it came to book learnin.
"Slow" became "Retard". Everyone, except my granny and I referred to him as that. And the more he was called that, the more "retarded" he became.
I guess I could make excuses for the rest of the family; After all, not one of them had ever heard the word "psychology" , much less knew what it meant. But in truth, most of em were just plain mean and had mean mouths on them.
But back to Raymond.
The last time I had seen him, I was 16 and he was 18. The day I turned 17, I went into the service and didn't return to Oklahoma for many years.
About 5 years ago, I was making one of my numerous cross country trips, when I happened to be going through a small town in Indiana. Years before, I'd heard that Raymond lived there and sure enough, found him in the phone book.
We met for coffee and then he invited me home for dinner. He was an auto mechanic, who had his own garage. In our talking, I found out that he does a lot of "charity" work, for those who can't afford it.
But what I found to be most impressive was that he and his wife couldn't have children of their own, so they adopted eight mentally handicapped children.
And you know sumpthin? Not a one of them is ever called "Retard" !
God bless you, Raymond. You are by far a better man than I am.
Jess
A bit of history: Once a teacher told Raymond's mother that Raymond was "slow", when it came to book learnin.
"Slow" became "Retard". Everyone, except my granny and I referred to him as that. And the more he was called that, the more "retarded" he became.
I guess I could make excuses for the rest of the family; After all, not one of them had ever heard the word "psychology" , much less knew what it meant. But in truth, most of em were just plain mean and had mean mouths on them.
But back to Raymond.
The last time I had seen him, I was 16 and he was 18. The day I turned 17, I went into the service and didn't return to Oklahoma for many years.
About 5 years ago, I was making one of my numerous cross country trips, when I happened to be going through a small town in Indiana. Years before, I'd heard that Raymond lived there and sure enough, found him in the phone book.
We met for coffee and then he invited me home for dinner. He was an auto mechanic, who had his own garage. In our talking, I found out that he does a lot of "charity" work, for those who can't afford it.
But what I found to be most impressive was that he and his wife couldn't have children of their own, so they adopted eight mentally handicapped children.
And you know sumpthin? Not a one of them is ever called "Retard" !
God bless you, Raymond. You are by far a better man than I am.
Jess
