Buddy

There are interesting people all around us and we don't even know it! I had met a man a couple of weeks ago in church. He was visiting. Just to look at him you knew he had a story to tell. He was such an interesting looking character!

Well, he stopped by yesterday to see my husband and I started to chat with him on our front porch, as my husband was out. I must have asked him about his family, because suddenly he whipped out about eight photos he had in his pocket. I think he had been showing them to a friend of his who has the barber shop a few doors down. This fellow I was talking to is known as Buddy.

Buddy showed me the most amazing picture of five generations of his family all together in one photo. It was his great grandfather, his grandfather, his father, himself and his son.

Buddy's great grandfather was a freed slave from Virginia. He became a farmer. ~ Just to think of that is amazing to me! So much history there! Then Buddy's grandfather became a farmer and moved up here to Jersey. The farm stayed in the family all the way to Buddy.

Buddy went on to tell me how his mother is now 91 and in a local nursing home. He said she may seem meek and mild now, but 50 years ago she was taking him out in the woods to cut a switch to spank his bottom~ he was a very mischievous boy!

He graduated high school then enlisted in the army. Shortly he was sent to Viet Nam. There he got involved in drugs and when he came home to the states he continued. He got involved with a black militaristic group in the 60's. He had a picture of his Black Power club; a real club! Then he went to some revival service to please his mother, and ended up accepting Jesus as his Savior. He said the phrase "Jesus Saves" is a very real thing for him, because if he hadn't accepted the Lord, he would have died from drug abuse!

After becoming a Christian, his desire for drugs stopped immediately! He said his desire to be militaristic with the Black Power group stopped too. He married a white girl~ mixed marriages weren't accepted back then~ and his buddies from the army dropped him pretty much. They went on to have 3 or 4 kids, and eventually grand children.

Today he is working his parents farm growing asparagus, watermelons, and some other vegetables. His one son is a barber in a near by town. Buddy is such an interesting guy to talk to! I guess he's in his 70's and still wears a black motor cycle jacket and sports a little white beard, and still drives a motor cycle too!

You just never know who's outside your door! Take a few moments to talk to strangers or even people you don't know very well! You may discover  some amazing stories!
 

Slave Cabin in the 1800's in Virginia