Keeping track as time passes by

Good morning everybody and welcome back to another Cecil’s World in Print. Have you noticed how time flies? Just last week, I remember thinking, it’s Monday and the next thing I know it is Friday and the week was over. I can remember when time was slow. When I was growing up, you could get your learner’s permit at 14, and when I was 12, I was already making plans for the kind of car I was going to get. It seemed like a lifetime before I finally started driving.

When I was in junior high, I could not wait to go to high school, and I really thought that day would never come. When I was in school ,I always wanted to take part in a political election. Yes, I wanted to vote, but the voting age was 21 in South Carolina, so I had to wait again for something I wanted to do. I remember the day after my 21st birthday. I was so excited as I walked into the voter registration office in Darlington. I signed on the dotted line and I had my voter registration card and I still carry it in my wallet.

Sometimes I think we lose sight of things that are more important to us in life today. It appears that we are more concerned with working and making all the money we can instead of helping others.

I found something the other day I want to share with you. It’s called “The Brick.”

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something.

As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door! He slammed on the brakes and spun the Jag back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown. He jumped out of the car, grabbed a kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, “What was that all about and who do you think you are? Just what the heck are you doing? Building up a head of steam he went on. “That’s a new car and the repairs are going to cost a lot of money! Why did you do it?”

“Please, mister, please. I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to do,” pleaded the youngster. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop….” tears were dripping down the boy’s chin as he pointed around the parked car. “It’s my brother,” he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.” Sobbing, the boy asked the man, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.”

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be OK.

“Thank you and May God bless you,” the grateful child said to him. The man then watched the little boy push his brother down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long walk back to his Jaguar, a long, slow walk. He never did repair the side door. He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention.

That’s it for another Cecil’s World in Print. I’ll see you next week right here in the Morning News and on the tube.

— Cecil Chandler is a veteran reporter at WBTW News13. His column appears Mondays in the Morning News.