It had to be in the summer of 73 or 74 when my new husband and I ventured into a lifetime trip in our little cream colored Toyota Corolla, 5-speed. Deciding to do Florida in mid summer wasn’t exactly the wisest choice with the intense heat to deal with and not having any air conditioning in the car. Daaahhhh@ Young and silly. Capable of withstanding just about anything at that age, still be as invincible as we were in our teen years. (At least Ken and I were).
I remember seeing dilapidated, decrepit shacks of homes located off to the sides of the principal highway and seeing a pink Cadillac crusing along with a big smiley man driving with a big, fat stogie in his mouth and his equally big beautiful woman riding next to him.
So when I saw how poorly the people lived who actually inhabited those shacks with missing windows and no paint, front porch falling apart with two rocking chairs on it. I felt a bit like I was at the movies. It was one of the first life lessons I was witness to that taught me of how different people are in the land I lived in. Maybe not in the northern woods of Minnesota but in many other parts of the country for sure. Moving right along, seeing Florida’s terrain as entering the north-western pan-handle looked nothing like what I expected beautiful Florida to look like.
Within an hour of entering the state, the common afternoon shower descended upon us like hail from the skies. I had never been witness to such hard and heavy rains. Torrential is what they called it and still do. With “Bread” blasting on the 8-track player in the Toyota, we ended up pulling off to the side of the road and helped ourselves to a rain shower in mid summer with short shorts and a tank top on.
We sudzed up our hair a bit, washing our faces and let the rain rinse us off. It rained that hard for that long, we were able to get good and clean. I don’t totally recall how long we laughed along that side of the road, but it was a good long time. Once the rains let up enough and we were void of nasty sweat, we carried on until reaching Panama City along the coastline. Now, I was in heaven. Now, I saw the beauty of the beaches, palm trees, sand dunes, city lights at night fogged in by the 150% humidity it must have been. We were literally in the clouds it seemed.
This was my first venture to any oceanic beach in the USA and coming from freezing cold Minnesota, the sheer joy of jumping into that salt water, boyant as an inflated toy, water as warm as bath water in MN and oceanic ships and boat slips, marinas all along the waterways. It was fantastic and I knew life here would be grand.
It was for about six months. We found jobs and an apartment in St. Pete Beach. Ken did marine construction and I worked in the escrow department of a large bank with fourth floor views from windows that were glass from floor to ceiling.
Life was great in Florida until I developed kidney stones. (now I know I was de-hydrated to the max.) But after numerous trips to the ER and losing my job from missing so much work we made our way back to MN to remain for another few years. All said and done we remained in Minnesota until 1978 when Ken was killed in an auto accident and left behind were myself and our two young daughters, Mel and Tel. This is when I first begin reaching out to God but it would be many years before I would find Him as a born again Christian.
Life throws us many ups and downs, the downs certainly not easy to withstand. But one thing I have learned from dealing with the BIG downs in life, is that once you have overcome the pain of it, be it a month or five years, you usually come out of it a wiser and better person, no worse for the wear.
There were more catastrophic events that took place in my life over the years and we will go there one day. Only to be able to explain to you in depth how and why we need to experience the tough times in life to grow. When God wants us to NEED Him, He means it. And the sooner we learn how to take His hand and give our lives to Him, the better off we are. I wouldn’t trade my Christian life now for anything else in the world. Let’s chat again later. Do you have a story to share with us that brought you to God? If so, please share it.
Humbly content! Brenda
cttbbelliott
COURAGE TIMES THREE 