Wednesday, September 5, 2018

a whole #6 for $1.30








As a kid growing up in Scotch Plains, downtown didn’t have much to offer.  No real place for kids to hang out, and Wallis Stationery sold anything form pipe tobacco to toys, but was never friendly to us kids. But if my dad was along....Smitty sold appliances, and Jean’s Beans on the corner sold take out food.   But rather nondescript, the old Shop Rite still there, but the new one on Route 22 got all the business.  It was Alphonso’s for pizza, Snuffy Jr.’s for a burger, but in between, no shops or real reasons to go downtown.  So we rarely did...it was off to Westfield, which its downtown was actually closer.  With auto stores like R&S, where I bought the fuzzy tiger stripe seat for my Schwinn Stingray, and later would look at all the Pep Boys type displays, promising me that’s my engine would quit burning oil, the slipcovers would help my worn out seats regain their factory appearance, and other ways to separate my money from my wallet.  A must on any Saturday.  The Leader Store sold clothes and sporting goods, we all wanted to shop there when we got older, it was Ivy League all the way, but we weren’t when we came of age.  A trip through Woolworths with the old wood floors, women clerks everywhere, and the coolest pet department ever, if you were into parakeets and fish.  You could hear the birds singing all through the store, although I never saw one purchased.  Out the back door, across the lot, and it was our final destination, Play Fair.  The ultimate toy store before Toys R Us, the front of the store was for kids, but the back was all about car models, where big kids, teenagers waited on you, showing off the complete models they had built, and a glass case full of Matchbox cars.  How many hours the average kid spent just looking isn’t known, I consumed at lest a few weeks worth, and my completed models still never turned out like theirs.  How did they get the gluey fingerprints off the windshield?  How come their wheels would roll?  How did their parts seem to fit together?  And no way you could get a brush job to look like that!  But at 39 cents a can for spray paint, who had the money?  I guess it was reserved for the big guys...in our dreams we would could see us behind the counter, showing off our new models, only to be brought back to reality by “hey kid you looking or buying?”  I looked a lot, shopped at Two Guys where the same model was 40 cents cheaper.  Were those big guys in ties really making 40 cents an hour?  WOW! 
Lunch meant Dukes for a sub, #6 roast beef, a whole for $1.30, made while you watched.  Lots of paper route money was spent there, then home.  But things were changing and so were we....
The traffic cops we used to think were fun to watch as they directed traffic at the intersections, now gave us menacing looks as we rode by on our Hondas.  Play Fair was gone, couldn’t even look back to see what was there.  Woolworths would fold, and be torn down.  R&S out of business, and no reason to shop at the Leader Store, psychodelic was in at Dead Ice Cream, and Dukes moved, then closed.  Stopping at a Jersey Mike’s the other day, who is owned by a guy named Pete, they try to pass off a sub like Dukes, but fall short. For only $8.25.  But if you never had a Dukes sub, you’d never know.  And the kid serving you wouldn’t care.  Oh to be a kid again, if for only one sunny Saturday, I wonder if R&S would have seat covers for our Mustang?  And would I have enough cash on me for a whole #6 with extra onions.....
Times change and so do we.  So many of our past memories are not there when we travel back again.  Just trying to get directions from a new resident can make you feel old, or crazy.  A few years back I inquired about a Flying A station with café in Fanwood, I used to eat there Saturday mornings with my Dad when finishing their new house. It’s gone, and no one could remember it ever being there.  No history on the books, “was I sure?”  I knew better than to pursue it any further.  It seems we all can be guilty of normalcy bias, a psycho babble word for if I didn’t see it, then it didn’t exist.  Used by those who deny Jesus or at least his deity too often.   The New Testament was written and widely read within 50 years of Jesus’ crucifixion.  Yet it takes the historian Josephus to back it up, not the other way around.  Seems many who were there would have protested, maybe even quietly if it weren’t true, but we forget that God inspired the Bible, and is known for his accuracy.  When telling stories of when I was a kid, I get “boy you must be old,” when really it is “you must be young.”  Neither a crime as far as I can tell.  But God has always been and so has Jesus.  They remember and also forget.  They remember from before the day of creation, but forget our sin when we ask forgiveness, as if it never happened.  We do the opposite, I can remember many who wronged me years ago, but forget how Jesus loves them too.  Seems we all are guilty of the same sins, yet we see them through different eyes than our own.  The wording making the difference.  The lie and steal, we stretch the truth.  Others betray, we are protecting our rights.  Some show prejudice, we have convictions.  Some murder and kill, we exploit and ruin.  While we yell “stone them, arrest them!” but fail to realize we are guilty of the same sins.  Imagine if we heard the sound of stones hitting the ground rather than pummeling others, but sin will always be sin, fortunately Jesus will always be Jesus. 
Just the opposite is faith, trusting in someone we cannot see, cannot here, or cannot fully describe, yet we place our whole lives in his hands.  Some to the point of ridicule or death.  Walking the streets of Jerusalem today many sites are claimed to be where Jesus walked.  But the people he walked with are long gone.  We cannot be sure where exactly he walked, but we can be sure he is still alive today.  And we can walk with him.  And for those who do, we have an eternal future of grace.  We may not know what tomorrow may bring, but we know what eternity brings.  What a difference forgiveness makes.
Sometimes we need to go back to see how far we have come.  To see how we are testimonies to how Jesus Christ changes lives.  In my mind I can still see the models at Play Fair, or taste and smell Dukes.  No photos to back up either, but no photos of Jesus either.  Who wasn’t camera shy, but out among the people.  Just like we were as kids.  Maybe a trip back downtown is needed to see how far he has brought us.  Park the car, break out the old Schwinn, walk the sidewalks, and see how far we have come.  Keeping our eyes focused on Jesus, seeing into a future unknown but with great anticipation.  Giving us a reason to live.  For he is life.  Downtowns, home towns and even the street names may change, Jesus never does.  How do you get better than perfect?  I would just love to see the model cars he built as a kid.....hands so delicate they could build the details, yet so tough they took the nails for us on the cross.  Life begins when Jesus enters your life, we may only have a finite amount of years to look back, but have forever to look ahead.  Kings and kingdoms will all pass away, but there will always be something about his name.
love with compassion,
Mike
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