Saturday, July 23, 2011

Stories from the Road: "He Had a Nice Voice"

I'm going to detract a bit from mission statements and explanations about what we are all about. This is, after all, a blog, and if you don't catch a little bit of me in it, well then, I haven't done a very good job communicating, have I?

This story comes from 3 years ago. I was driving in Pampa, when I saw a couple with packs on their backs leave the local Salvation Army and head around the corner. Now, we haven't had bus service in Pampa in a number of years, so to find travellers coming through is highly unusual. I headed towards them, and offered them a ride where they were headed.

They were ultimately headed to Albuquerque, had gotten to Amarillo, and had ended up in Pampa. As Albuquerque is the opposite way, this naturally invited questions. It turned out that they were hitching a ride in Amarillo, and a lady came up and picked them up. They didn't know much about where they were headed, so they didn't protest much when she took them to Pampa, offered them a good meal and a hotel room. It put them 60 miles behind on their journey, but that's part of travelling the road, really.

I was curious what they did for money, so I asked them if they played instruments. The young lady said she played guitar, and had set out on the road with one, but she was sitting around with some other kids and one of them had a nice voice, so she gave him the guitar.

Thyat's the kind of action, the kind of sharing that really restores one's faith in humanity. he whole way to Amarillo, I was wishing I had an extra guitar in my truck so that I could send her on her waay with a replacement.

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