Song Gives Clue To Character

When I was a teenager I had the desire to hitchhike from Little Rock to Baton Rouge, La. It took a bit of persuading for my mother to agree to it. Her sister’s family was the destination.

It was safer in the 1940s and besides she sewed me a “secret pocket” to hold my $11.

My first ride was 11 miles and I felt I was halfway there. The trip went swimmingly (as the Brits say) with a kind soul even paying for my motel ($3) on the fi rst night.

The second day was a bit different. It was rainy, rides were scarcer and I was on the Huey Long highway with very little traft c. That sounds strange nowadays with the overabundance of traft c.

If the Huey Long reference is strange to modern readers, he was a senator from Louisiana and had everything named after him - from dog houses to beehives.

The day was far spent and I was 100 miles or so from my destination. It wascloudy and darkness was not far off . My imagination was working overtime.

Would I have to sleep on the side of a Louisiana - alligator-infested swamp - highway?

In the distance I saw a model-T truck inching toward me with two men inside. I thought of my secret money and of being hijacked. I was afraid to thumb a ride and afraid not to. I made a half-hearted gesture and the truck stopped. Not much was said as I climbed in. We just rode - gaining on the city.

All of a sudden the driver, in a smooth tenor voice, broke the silence - “There’s a land that is fairer than day and by faith we can see it afar.”I relaxed. My whole body relaxed. He was on my side.

Not only did he take me to Baton Rouge, but he knew the street and let me out at the front door.

It is good to know whose side a person is on.

!!!

Have you ever noticed, while waiting on a twominute traft c light, how many things you observe? There is the lady fluffing her hair or putting on makeup, the truck driver lighting up a smoke or someone checking the airconditioning.

Then, too, there is odd behavior - such as two people turned away from each other in the same front seat talking to two other people on cellphones elsewhere. Go fi gure.

Someone observed some young people in a house playing Monopoly. One young man in the same room was furiously texting to one of the girls playing the game. My question: Was it too far to walk over and talk to her face to face?

I can recall when a person waiting was observing the trees or watching the clouds or was alive with wonder at some happening in the woods. Now, that same person is concentrating on a cellphone and busily engaged in conversation with someone in another city.

Which is better - to a call a neighbor or to leisurely walk over to his nearby house and say, “Come go to church with me. There’s a musical you’ll enjoy.”

I’m for close communing, the physical, up-close kind that is warmly remembered.

THE REV. ANDREW HALL HAS BEEN AN ORDAINED PASTOR FOR MORE THAN 70 YEARS. HE SERVED FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF FAYETTEVILLE FROM 1952 TO 1970.

HE NOW PREACHES AT ELKINS COMMUNITY CHURCH ON THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EACH MONTH.