I was going through some of my old writings to clean and toss and found this one.Wrote the following memory years ago. Polished it up a litte so enjoy.
A lifetime lesson learned
It was a hot May day in 1963 and I was a twelve-year-old prissy girl walking home from school in the opposite direction from the other kids. I was about a block from home when I saw my brother Charles and his friend, David also walking home.
I saw David run the final 100 yards to the gate of our home. He opened the wooden gate and waited patiently for me. With a nonchalant attitude, I just kept on walking and finally arrived at the gate. David held the gate open then with a twinkle in his eyes and a radiant smile on his extremely buck teeth he made a gentlemanly bow and waved me through the gate. Like a princess who thinks it was her due, I marched right through that gate and up to the house all without a word to my young knight. At 121/2, I was too sophisticated (I thought) to encourage a bucked tooth kid with a crush on me.
Ten minutes later Charles who was then eleven came into the kitchen where I was washing dishes. He tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention. When I turned around he delved right into it. “I just got done talking to David and he felt so bad. You didn’t even speak to him after he ran all the way to open the gate for you. You were so mean and didn’t even say Thank you. That wasn’t very nice”.
Those were his words then and 60 years have gone by and I still remember that hot May day and the shame I felt at being told by a younger brother that what I had done was not nice. I was/still am an extremely sensitive person toward other people’s feelings so I learned my lesson well. No matter how simple the gesture of kindness or who performed it, a thank you should always be given.
