Today I continue in my writings about men who had a major influence on my life. I am trying to do these in chronological order. Today's man of influence in my life was my Uncle Duane. Duane is only one year older than me. He turned sixty one on April 23rd of this year and I will be sixty, Lord willing on April 30th. It is interesting that his mother (my grandmother) was pregnant just a year prior to my birth.
Duane always lived in the country while we lived in town (my hometown was not really a city). One of the thrills I enjoyed as a boy was visiting Duane's house in the country. Officially the area that he grew up in was known as Brush Creek and while he moved down the road a piece to Harmon, Brush Creek is still there. About the only sign of the community is the church where Duane attended as a baby and still attends sixty one years later. Today he is a leader of this church and has seen it through the good times and the bad.
One of the major influences he brought to my life was that he was always steadfast. He never wavered in his faith from his childhood until today. He amazes me in that he still lives in the same area, attends the same church, etc. I can remember as a young boy that he and I were tempted as all boys are and for the most part he always did what was right. I did say for the most part....once as young boys we decided that we would have the first yard sale ever. We started bringing all of my grandfathers tools, etc to the big front porch and set up a store. Needless to say the sale did not last long after my granfather came home. I think we sold an ink pen or two and that was about it. Another time we decided that we would cuss. It just came to us that we should cuss any and everything we saw that morning, from the blue jays to cars driving by. This also did not last long as we became bored with this activity. This was about as bad a thing as we ever did.
I mentioned in a post many months ago that Duane was my first boss. We started a lawn mowing service when I must have been ten years old and Duane was eleven. He was the foreman because he was older and because he had a big red Yazoo mower while I had a little green lawn boy. We would either push the mowers from job to job or sometimes we would ride our bikes and drag the mowers. Duane always went to the door to ask about the job, primarily because he was older, taller and had the big professional mower. Once the job was secure, I would come out with the little lawn boy to do the finesse work while Duane and the Yazoo tackled the tall grass. We made some pretty good money for a couple of young kids and had a good time. People did have us back so I guess we also did a pretty good job.
As we grew older, Duane always had some work. He ran his own hay hauling crew, worked in grocery stores or anywhere he could earn a few bucks. He of course had a car when he was old enough to drive and through all the teenage years when the pressure is on kids, he stood by the stuff. He was a great example to me as a young boy about how important it was to live an upright life. Duane was and is a great Christian influence in my life. He and I have discussed and digested the Bible together on many a night.
Today his children and mine are grown. We both have grandchildren and we are both married to the same woman we began our journey with. While we don't get to see each other too often, I still think about Duane each April during our birthday season and I thank God that Duane was there to provide a great influence too me. Most all the kids I was around growing up had no clue as to how one should live his life and Duane was that one that God brought my way so that I could see how one should live.
As I write these words on this Easter Sunday, April 24th, 2011, I again say thank you God for Duane and his impact on my life....even today.
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