From: owner-eda-thoughts-digest@smoe.org (eda-thoughts-digest) To: eda-thoughts-digest@smoe.org Subject: eda-thoughts-digest V2 #359 Reply-To: eda-thoughts@smoe.org Sender: owner-eda-thoughts-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-eda-thoughts-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk eda-thoughts-digest Saturday, December 18 1999 Volume 02 : Number 359 * If you ever wish to unsubscribe, send an email to * eda-thoughts-digest-request@smoe.org with ONLY * the word unsubscribe in the body of the email * . * PLEASE :) when you reply to this digest to send a post TO the list, * change the subject to reflect what your post is about. A subject * of Re: eda-thoughts-digest V2 #xxx or the like gives readers no clue * as to what your message is about. Today's Subjects: ----------------- ET: Fwd: Fw: Angels Among Us] [Seth Fulmer ] ET: ~9 spacetimes~ [shivergirl ] ET: poem [KTLUVSJOE@aol.com] ET: If he could only see ["~* cymbaline *~" ] ET: I'm having a nervous breakdown!! ["~* cymbaline *~" Subject: ET: Fwd: Fw: Angels Among Us] Hi :) I got this yesterday from my bible study group and just wanted to send this off before I went to work. I thought it was an awesome story!! You all are truly angels! Yeah Mandy(Slicky)...even you :) lol :) -Seth ========================== Delivered-To: kaosking@unix01.voicenet.com Delivered-To: kaosking@voicenet.com X-Authentication-Warning: glue.irt.drexel.edu: majordom set sender to owner-dsoapm-list@drexel.edu using -f Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 08:00:37 -0500 From: Susan Sharpe Subject: Fwd: Fw: Angels Among Us] X-Sender: To: bsharpe490@aol.com, dsoapm-list@drexel.edu X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.1 Sender: owner-dsoapm-list@drexel.edu Reply-To: Susan Sharpe Angels Among Us In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket. Their father was gone. The boys ranged from three months to seven years; their sister was two. Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared. Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds. He did manage to leave 15 dollars a week to buy groceries. Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either. If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it. I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress. I loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job. The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck. The kids stayed, crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince whomever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job. Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel. An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids. She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour and I could start that night. I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal. That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers we all said our thanks for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel. When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money-fully half of what I averaged every night. As the weeks went by, heating bills added another strain to my meager wage. The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home. One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up residence in Indiana? I wondered. I made a deal with the owner of the local service station. In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires. I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough. Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids. I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. Then I hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair. On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. These were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe. A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up. When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning I hurried to the car. I was hoping the kids wouldn't wake up before I managed to get home and get the presents from the basement and place them under the tree. (We had cut down a small cedar tree by the side of the road down by the dump.) It was still dark and I couldn't see much, but there appeared to be some dark shadows in the car-or was that just a trick of the night? Something certainly looked different, but it was hard to tell what. When I reached the car I peered warily into one of the side windows. Then my jaw dropped in amazement. My old battered Chevy was full-full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes. I quickly opened the driver's side door, scrambled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat. Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was a whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes: There were candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was a whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items. And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll. As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning. Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop. I BELIEVE IN ANGELS! They live next door, around the corner, work in your office, patrol your neighborhood, call you at midnight to hear you laugh and listen to you cry, teach your children, and you see them everyday without even knowing it!. Send this to someone you think is an angel! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 16:21:27 -0500 From: shivergirl Subject: ET: ~9 spacetimes~ * so david said he didn't care for alicia's outfit he said "stop the car, mom! i need to get out--NOW!!" "i really need some more maple syrup, and i need to get off." david said "pretend you just don't see them" "and for god's sake don't act like you're my girlfriend or anything" then he said "would you mind terribly if i go and buy a gift for my mental mistress?" (she's just a good close friend; you understand) and david showed alicia how proud he was of this woman/teresa in the picture in his scrapbook but he said "no, i'm not in love with her, at all" "i promise" "it's just been a hellish year" so david said * ~sarah states~ sarah says long-distance relationships suck because you only get to have sex four months a year oh dear sarah says she fer sure likes wearing skirts with slits up to her earlobes and you can say she helped you of course up at the desk thanks sarah says she tried and tried to make me her friend but now she has to resort to those ghetto hos oh no sarah says she got bit in the face by a raging pit bull and that her dad actually fed it to alligators oh swell sarah says she got the camera and james kept the ninentdo 64 but she's still got the ring with two little diamonds in it and her new retail flavour is standing at the black marble door now sarah says * tories that are not conservatives here in the land of the national curling association i adore your candid overall photo accompaniments revealing dreams of glimpses of raver-happy couples i conjure in my sleep * sent to fatima/evicted from/this highrise/called menial small-fry/ hell/i fire off/correspondence/in the form/of e-mail/dangerously close/ to constituting/criminal content/thoughts adherent/to my/will * fray my nerves/they like the thrill/it spills over/into my scantily-clad/ magic chaos/faerie-hill/barely concealed/i feel/the glimmer/resonance/ from letting go/of your dogma/still uber-elite/after all/this time/god bless you * superfluity/who needs/hollywoood/cuties/hunks/heartthrobs/of either sex/ right seth/with him around/people's worth/always seems/to dwindle down/ common/denominator man/oh that's right/i forgot/that's an insult/how could i/forget/those/now * unlimited calling/i.d./it's me/can you see/my nervous hands/spasm/over the number keys/i don't mind/waiting/pining/intercoms/turn me on/indefinitely/ canadian coverage/does that include/me/i'd like to be/that pulse/hope it/rings * exposed to a toxic/bet it/makes you/writhe/flap/hiccup with love/all over the screen/ your computer/glued to you/like a little/yellow stickie/paper/press tighter/you're about/ to implode/like my purple pen/all over/your loveless hands/and i can/send a poem/to me/ from me/i can fake/interconnectedness/if put to the test/like the rest/i can lower/the dosage/ i can tape on/self-esteem/i can play/the pseduo/nymph/just call me/shiverbitch/the queen of/ excess/what/little shitstorms/i could care/less/my halo has been/restored/blessed/again * hormone-shaker/queer experiencer/grouchy butcher with short hair/not of-this-world/ heavenly sister/i induced the silencer/you know/gave into guilty pleasure/i wanted to be/ the taker/i forgot i was already/smitten/with my best friend/this like-minded/girl/called winter/ she lent me/her power surges/of strength/but i dropped them/underneath the swings/i was a/ terrible chancer/i was grimmer than ever/before/i was colder/than an ex-lover/i was the ultimate/ sidestepper/of female bonding/so i lost my best sparkler/of this world/the bell-toller girl/called cassandra ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 17:27:58 EST From: KTLUVSJOE@aol.com Subject: ET: poem There is a pain in side me, it grows whenever your gone. My mind goes through torment, Ifeel like its just spinning around. I cant be happy anymore, my heart is lonely, it cannot feel anything but sorrow. How sad must one be to sit and contemplate the days when she closed her eyes and there was someone there to talk to something to believe in. Look at me for a moment. Its me. I've always been this way. I love you and if you cant see past my broken smile I'll try harder. I'll make you the happy man you deserve to be Even if that means that I'm not good enough to be me. comments welcome. KatherineY ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Dec 1999 00:01:42 GMT From: "~* cymbaline *~" Subject: ET: If he could only see If he could only see the river of tears I cry, wanting so much to be a part of him, but knowing I'll never be. - -cymbaline- 12/17/99 6:00pm ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Dec 1999 02:10:53 GMT From: "~* cymbaline *~" Subject: ET: I'm having a nervous breakdown!! Okay, Ahmad, aka love of my life (but who doesn't know it) is online. He doesn't know I know his aol screenname... If I IM him, he'll think I'm stalking him! But if I IM him, then I'll know what I never would have known had I of never talked to him. Okay, I'm flipping out... I wanna IM him so bad, but I'm too shy, Dammit! Thats what got me into this in the first place... Kelly ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ End of eda-thoughts-digest V2 #359 **********************************