The Bench
By Tom Reed
()
About this ebook
Communities are built on the shoulders of humble giants who quietly answered the nations call to fight wars, then came home and built businesses and families and communities prospered because of their efforts. Two old men sit on a bench around court square and remember their lives and observe the changes in the community they helped build. Lifes tales, tragedies and lessons come from discussions on the Bench. Community and personal values, dating back to Biblical times are discussed at the Bench.
Tom Reed
Tom Reed lives and writes on a small farm with his wife, Judy, in rural West Tennessee, shared with an abundance of critters. Prior to writing, he retired from a career in health care management and was active in community organizations. This is his tenth book. [Use photo from previous two books published by you.]
Read more from Tom Reed
NOLS Bear Essentials: Hiking and Camping in Bear Country Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGive Me Mountains for My Horses: Journeys of a Backcountry Horseman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Other Side: On the Road in South America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTimpson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsManagement & Leadership: Lessons from the Bible Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTurn To Me Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhispers from the Mountain: Lessons from God and the Pillars of Christianity: A Devotional Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTurn To Me: The Sequel: A Trilogy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Bench
Related ebooks
I Hear Your Heartbeat: A Pilgrimage of Healing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow To Solve A Noise Problem In New York City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLike That Old Man River Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGittin' Through: A Southern Town During World War Ii Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Brick City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThirty Years Gone Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAntiSeptic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Their Own Words: Recollections of an Earlier Loudoun Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPennsylvania Ghost Towns: Uncovering the Hidden Past Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Loper Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeyond Trail’S End Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJust a Country Boy: As Told to Tish Lynn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegend of Link Bonner Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfter All These Years (Hometown Memories, Book 1) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dinosaurs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCollege and Eighth: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlesh Collectors: Cannibalism and Further Depravity on the Redneck Riviera Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Constant Vigilance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOpening Moves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two Sloughs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings616 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Village Smithy: Memories of a Small Town in the New England Hills Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCoincident Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCatfish Dream: Ed Scott's Fight for His Family Farm and Racial Justice in the Mississippi Delta Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJune: Trespasses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClose to the Wall Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Estonia System Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Deaf Club in America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Triumph over Prejudice: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Old Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Christianity For You
Wise Thoughts for Every Day: On God, Love, the Human Spirit, and Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Holy Bible (World English Bible, Easy Navigation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Lead When You're Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Till We Have Faces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Your Brain's Not Broken: Strategies for Navigating Your Emotions and Life with ADHD Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confession Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Porn Trap: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Problems Caused by Pornography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Law of Connection: Lesson 10 from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Speak French for Kids | A Children's Learn French Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Holy Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mere Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of The Wim Hof Method: by Wim Hof - Activate Your Full Human Potential - A Comprehensive Summary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5HOW SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE THINK: CHANGE YOUR LIFE Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Workbook: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Overthink It: Make Easier Decisions, Stop Second-Guessing, and Bring More Joy to Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love in the Void: Where God Finds Us Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5101 Questions to Ask Before You Get Engaged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5KJV, Reference Bible: Holy Bible, King James Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Bench
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Bench - Tom Reed
Copyright © 2017 Tom Reed.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
1 (866) 928-1240
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
ISBN: 978-1-5127-8516-6 (e)
WestBow Press rev. date: 04/21/2017
Contents
Prologue
Begin
Follow
The Great Commission
Patience
Present
Prologue
Dotted all over our great country are courthouses found in towns, small, sometimes designated as the county seats. Within the courthouses are official offices where the citizens pay taxes, record real estate deeds, receive vehicle license plates, and lawyers plead cases in criminal and civil courts. Courthouses are busy places.
Many are located in the center of the city; the metropolis grew and swallowed the land around it. In smaller communities the courthouses are protected by a court square full of trees, grass, and simple benches. The square is a memory of what the city was before concrete, steel and glass took over. It is a calm within the bustling storm.
Here, in this calm, of most small communities, the court benches have been occupied for decades. Women and children pass by the seats on their daily chores and leave them vacant for the retired, old men.
Old warhorses who answered the nation’s call, and fought in every war. Some warhorses built businesses, employing the citizens, and multiplying a dollar earned through all the merchants in town. They started the Community Chest, which became the United Way, and they started many other community charities. They were pillars in the Boy Scouts and Little League. They were the coaches or cheering in all sports. They started or served schools, and found ways to improve education at all levels. They were or remain leaders within their churches.
They served on multiple Boards of Directors and went to hours and hours of meetings for no pay. They led and were part of fundraisers for every good cause.
Some have shiny plaques and trophies engraved with their names gathering dust in their attics because they are too humble to display them on the living room walls.
These warhorses are the unsung, and often unseen heroes of every community. When they retire, they often retire to sit, remember, and rest on a bench on court square near the courthouse. They become invisible and forgotten. Most communities rest on the humble shoulders of these giants, and this book is dedicated to them.
__________________
__________________
Begin
They had all been replaced around 1938, but the original benches placed around the courtyard had been there since the new courthouse grew out of the charred rubble of the one before. There had been a few courthouses since 1818.
The benches served a community service for its citizens and those folks passing through this small southern town of Petal, TN. It was supposed to be named after a flower, but the first settlers couldn’t agree on one flower so they compromised on Petal. It could have been named worse.
Petal, TN did not flourish, but it did survive. It survived the great ‘Conflict Between the States’ mainly because there wasn’t much in Petal to pilfer nor was it in a strategic location in which to argue. No great roads, rivers or railroads came through this fine town. In fact, none come today decades later. That explains why industrial development and non-farming jobs are 95 miles west in Memphis.
The people of Petal do remain vigilant. Like many other Southern court squares, there is a tall Confederate soldier standing, armed, ready, facing north day and night. Since the mid 1860’s and Lee’s surrender not one militant Yankee has been spotted by the granite soldier. However the local pigeons do like him, and the Boy Scouts scrub the statue at least once a year. The Girl Scouts also do the chore one more time during the year. He is perched on a pedestal, so his view is from about forty feet high.
There is a bench next to our motionless soldier with a particularly good view of court square, the courthouse, and the world of Petal. A homeless bum, once housed in a mental institution thirty miles southwest, slept on this specific bench during good weather because a big oak tree blocked the streetlight. He gave up his bed and bench when he hung himself in an alleyway a few years ago.
The massive oak tree provided shade from the annoying street light at night as well as much needed shade and cool during the sweltering Southern summer days.
The bench, under this massive tree, provides a good view of the courthouse green square. The bench is long enough to seat two adults comfortably and just wide enough to accommodate a good slouch. It is made of wooden slats on the seat and back and sturdy iron on the ends that hold it all together and form the legs to make it stable. The paint is weathered past the wood. The last paint was a forest dark green, but now is a darkened oak with only a hint of the old green paint. The county stopped painting them many years ago because of budget restraints. The seat and back have scars from past occupants and a few whittlers.
The county decided that attention and money could be better spent elsewhere than upkeep on court square benches. As these old wooden benches became a hazard to the citizens, they were first replaced with colorful fiberglass benches that were unpopular. Later those were replaced with concrete, indestructible, non-maintenance ones. These newest ones were hot in the summer, very cold in other times of the year, and too hard all the time to sit comfortably upon.
Clayton and Raybon felt privileged to have laid claim to one of the few remaining old, useable wood benches, and especially the one under the big oak tree next to the vigilant, solid, soldier. It was comfortable to them.
Clayton and Raybon have been friends for many years. They each worked hard jobs, volunteered in community projects, raised families, and suffered everyone’s tragedies and joys. Neither man was born and raised in Petal, but both had put in their years in the community and knew its people and quirks. The men were retired now, they were lazy or smart enough not to have any productive hobbies so they met at The Bench every day to drink coffee, feed squirrels, and pigeons and talk about other people and their own lives. It passed the time, got them out of the house and away from the television. They enjoyed each other’s company. They experimented with a few retiree coffee clubs around town, but preferred