SeaCat
Hey, my Halo is smoking
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2003
- Posts
- 15,378
Today, for the first time in too many years I cried. Not only did I cry but I did so in public.
Since I moved to Florida almost seven years ago I have been going to a small Mexican Market. I buy my rice there. I buy my Beans there. I even buy my meats there even though they cost more. (I like the way they handle their meats.) I even buy my Tequila there. I also have this habit of every PayDay dropping several dollars in their donation jar. They use the money to help their friends and neghbors through the tough times.
For the past couple of PayDays I haven't been buying Tequila there. Hell I haven't been buying much, just Beans and rice. All I can afford right now. It must have been noticed.
Today when my wife and I stopped by there to pick up a couple of things the owner looked at me as I was dropping a couple of singles in the jar and asked how things were going after Wilma. I shrugged and answered we were doing better than many people we knew. As he talked with me and told me how the people he knew were coping his wife took my wife to the side and talked with her. My wife must have admitted that yes times were not easy for us either. Yes money is short.
Before I knew it the owner of the store had gone behind the meat counter and pulled several pieces of beef from the cooler. Cutting them up he wrapped and bagged them along with a bottle of Corazon. (Almost ten pounds of meat.)
"Cat" yes he knows my nickname. "You have been in here almost every week for the past several years. every time you are in here you ask me how I am doing. If I have a problem you tell me how to get help, or you help me. You give us money to help our friends. For over six years you have done this. Today I am helping you."
What can I say? Yes times are tight. Work doesn't pay much and the overtime has been ended. My wife, as I mentioned before needed a Root Canal which ran us over $500.00 even with insurance. Then we got hit by Wilma which caused us to spend money we hadn't planned on spending for supplies such as extra gas. My wife and I have been living on what we call broke food for a while, with no real end in sight for at least another month or two. (And yes even that food we share with others.) Now here this guy is giving us over a hundred dollars of meat not to mention an expensive bottle of Tequila.
Yes I broke down and cried. I have never asked for nor received donations. I have never asked for nor received charity. This was neither. As he explained it, he was just helping a friend.
Cat
Since I moved to Florida almost seven years ago I have been going to a small Mexican Market. I buy my rice there. I buy my Beans there. I even buy my meats there even though they cost more. (I like the way they handle their meats.) I even buy my Tequila there. I also have this habit of every PayDay dropping several dollars in their donation jar. They use the money to help their friends and neghbors through the tough times.
For the past couple of PayDays I haven't been buying Tequila there. Hell I haven't been buying much, just Beans and rice. All I can afford right now. It must have been noticed.
Today when my wife and I stopped by there to pick up a couple of things the owner looked at me as I was dropping a couple of singles in the jar and asked how things were going after Wilma. I shrugged and answered we were doing better than many people we knew. As he talked with me and told me how the people he knew were coping his wife took my wife to the side and talked with her. My wife must have admitted that yes times were not easy for us either. Yes money is short.
Before I knew it the owner of the store had gone behind the meat counter and pulled several pieces of beef from the cooler. Cutting them up he wrapped and bagged them along with a bottle of Corazon. (Almost ten pounds of meat.)
"Cat" yes he knows my nickname. "You have been in here almost every week for the past several years. every time you are in here you ask me how I am doing. If I have a problem you tell me how to get help, or you help me. You give us money to help our friends. For over six years you have done this. Today I am helping you."
What can I say? Yes times are tight. Work doesn't pay much and the overtime has been ended. My wife, as I mentioned before needed a Root Canal which ran us over $500.00 even with insurance. Then we got hit by Wilma which caused us to spend money we hadn't planned on spending for supplies such as extra gas. My wife and I have been living on what we call broke food for a while, with no real end in sight for at least another month or two. (And yes even that food we share with others.) Now here this guy is giving us over a hundred dollars of meat not to mention an expensive bottle of Tequila.
Yes I broke down and cried. I have never asked for nor received donations. I have never asked for nor received charity. This was neither. As he explained it, he was just helping a friend.
Cat
