Monday Mornings With Harvey

The Princess and Bernie Brewer
pic courtesy of J


This morning I did the lesson for tomorrow night's Bible study. It started out with a question. "When have you experienced joy in meeting a need for someone?" What comes to mind for you? Hopefully we all have at least one time that we can think of, probably more than one.





This question made me think of Harvey. He was an elderly gentleman that lived here in town, with his daughter. To give his daughter a break, I would pick Harvey up every Monday morning and take him for a ride. Our Monday morning routine was a break for his daughter, but I recieved the greater blessing.





Princess, Trucker and I would get to Harvey's around 8:00 am. He would be sitting on the couch waiting for us or sitting on the couch still getting his shoes on. Both of his shirt pockets were full; one with dog biscuits for Butthead and the other with candy for Princess and Trucker. To start out our ride we would always go to the local cafe, as it was time for Harvey's morning coffee. He would always order a donut and glass of root beer for each of the kids. Certainly not what I would order for them at 8:15 am, but they never seemed to mind. I have to say, it never hurt them any, either. Upon leaving the restaurant, Harvey would tell me where he wanted to go.





Sometimes he wanted to go check out a lake he fished as a child or a young man. Sometimes he would just tell me a direction, south, and we would head south until he told me another turn. The stories he told me about the history of our area were tremendous. The stories he would tell me of his own life, growing up and adulthood, were even better. As he was talking, he would interrupt his own story to tell me about a house or spot we were coming up to. Maybe a house he had lived in for a few years while growing up, the house he would pick his wife up from when they were dating, the spot where the house had been where he was born. Quite often he wanted to go down to the marina on the river and talk about his Dad bringing logs down the river way back in the day.

Some rides lasted a couple of hours. Some rides went into the afternoon. We would stop and eat lunch in whatever town we ended up in. The kids even took a few of their afternoon naps while we were driving around. One time Harvey wanted to go way up into the Upper Penninsula of Michigan to see the homestead of his parents or grandparents, I can't remember which any more. When we were driving home that day, even Harvey fell asleep!

Back to the original question. "When have you experienced joy in meeting a need or someone?" The Monday morning rides started out as a break for his daughter. My joy far surpassed hers, I believe. I treasure those memories of some of our rides and talks. Harvey always had a twinkle in his blue eyes when we showed up, so I know he enjoyed those times. His daughter told me that he would talk about our ride all week long until the next Monday rolled around. My kids faintly remember those rides. At the time - they loved it. What three and four year old would not want to ride around with an old man that gave you a piece of candy every time Mom wasn't looking and ordered you a donut and root beer for breakfast? Butthead could not talk, but I'm sure she loved getting a dog biscuit every half hour, too!