I’m feeling rather introspective right now, so I thought I’d share a story about Marines. Biker Marines who wear scarlet and gold back patches.
About 5 years ago, a bunch of my friends stopped at my place for refuge from a storm. We get wicked monsoon storms out here, wind and lightning and pouring rain. We were all happily drinking beer and telling lies, err, stories when suddenly we were hit by a microburst (LOTS of wind in a very small area, like a mini tornado).
All was good at Casa Flatlined, but an elderly neighbor’s shed got picked up and blown down the hill. We went out to look at the damage, yes, that was stupid, but beer and Marines…
The microburst passed and we helped the elderly couple gather up their belongings.
The elderly couple had very regular habits and I knew they would go to church in the morning. I told the guys this and phone calls were made. At 8 that morning, there were 17 cleverly disguised Marines at my place and one stationed at the church. Of course, nobody would notice a biker with Harley and Marine colors in a church parking lot…
As soon as the elderly couple left, the guys went whooping up the hill, gathered up the shed, carried it back into their yard, banged it back into shape and used 2x4’s to reinforce it. There were buckets of concrete involved as well. When the scout called to report that the elderly couple was leaving church, they all ran back down the hill and into my house. There was much jubilation about a job well done.
The elderly couple moved out a couple of years later and the house has been up for sale ever since.
Several months ago, someone knocked on my front door. I don’t usually answer the door to strangers, but this was a lady who seemed to be in her 50’s holding what looked to be a pie box. When I opened the door I could smell berry pie and the lady smiled at me and said “I know who you are and I know what you did.” Of course, my first response was to slam the door in her face and go hide under the bed.
Instead, I demonstrated my sharp wit by stammering “huh?”
“This is for you.” as she held the box out. Not wanting to be churlish, I reached out and took the warm, good smelling box and invited her in. Yes, I was thinking about Thinner, but dang, that pie smelled good.
As we were having black forest pie and coffee, she told her parents were the ones who had their shed blown over. She said that the neighbors had seen through the clever disguises the guys were wearing and told her parents who had fixed their shed.
Her mom had wanted to come right over and say thank you, but her dad, a WW2 vet said that my friends thought they had gotten away with something and that they should let them have their fun.
Dad had died and mom was now in poor health and wanted to clear up all of her debts, so the daughter came back to the empty house, baked a wonderful pie and delivered it to a stranger.
How’s that for an AWWWWWW moment?
