Enthusiastic Joe

A couple weeks ago, Peggy and I were at a truck stop in Birmingham, AL. We had been taking a break at the Flying-J with a couple other drivers from our company. Brian, Tater and we had delivered 3 trailers in Birmingham when the place opened on a Mon. morning. Then we went to breakfast. I ate quick and moved over to an empty area near the pizza counter to fiddle as is my habit. That went well for awhile. I talked to one guy especially, Jeff, a flat-bed driver, who loves to play guitar but didn’t have it with him. He said he’d start carrying it in case we meet again at this truck stop. After awhile, Brian & Tater took off for Atlanta while we were heading west. It was Peggy’s turn to drive. As she was preparing her log-book, a black driver in the truck next to us got out and stared at the side of my door on the passenger side. Our logo is a heart-shaped violin next to our name - “Heartstrings Xpress, Inc.” So I offered this explanation: “I play fiddle.” Without skipping a beat, the black driver, Joe, said, “Well let’s hear it.” Of course I’m always ready to share if asked. So I grabbed the fiddle out of the case on the bunk, sat back down in the jump-seat and started fiddling. Joe stood on the running board with his face right next to my right ear. He was sincerely fascinated and wanted to figure it out. He watched my fingering and my bow and had a million questions. He is about the most expressive, enthusiastic person I’ve ever met. He had never seen a violin up close being played, except that he had been introduced to cello in grade school but didn‘t pursue it. He reached out and very gently touched the top of my violin. It was so cool! He said his wife had told him that if he had had the right teacher he would’ve been really great at music. In just a few minutes we learned that Joe’s wife is white, that he had known white girls in high school and liked hanging out with them more than the black girls because he learned so much cultural stuff from the whites as opposed to ending up in fights over the black girls; he had been in prison for awhile, etc… Joe seemed very articulate - a good communicator, loves to talk. He is around our age, tawny, tough, handsome… Peggy had to intervene and cut this session short because we had already spent a lot of time at the truck stop and wanted to get on the road. So we said goodbye to Joe. He really made an impression in those few minutes. I wanted to harness a little of his energy for myself. Then we were off and running to Oklahoma City. That’s another story.

We spent the whole day in OK City while having a storage box installed on the side of our truck - supposed to take “about 3 hours” but actually took six hours. We went there to deliver a stack of 3 new flat-beds, arrived at 6:30 a.m., saw some cool storage boxes in the office and decided to buy one and have it installed. Once our truck was in the bay and work had started, we called Peggy’s cousin Trudy, walked a couple blocks up to the truck stop and met Trudy for breakfast. It was the first time in a couple years we had seen her. When we drove for Clark Farms, we stayed east of the Mississippi. Now with RexDon, we get to go west again. Trudy is ‘bananas for Jesus,’ so we always have a wonderful time with her, sharing what Jesus is doing in our lives. After a great visit - the first in sooo long, we returned to our truck, expecting it to be ready, to find it was not anywhere near being done. By the time they finished it, our schedule was too tight to make it on time to the next pick-up in David City, NE, but as I slept, Peggy phoned ahead, bribed someone, and they agreed to wait another hour for us to get there. Another day/another adventure. Back in OK City we have another friend - Kim Kyungah. She has finished her masters and is now working full time for a Baptist church as administrative assistant. We could not get hold of her the day we met Trudy, but just a week or so later we came through again en route from San Diego to Columbus, OH. This time we met both Trudy and Kyungah at an ice cream store. It’s so great to be running western states again and to be able to drop in on friends and family.