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IN THIS ISSUE

• An anonymous writer tells the story of a woman asking for help
• Zvonko Springer sends his good wishes for the coming year
• Jean Sterling writes about a precarious bridge in Florida
• Tom Telfer experiences a senior moment
• Burke Dykes forwards a tale about a glass of water
• Irene Harvalias sends an Irish ghost story
• Catherine Nesbitt explains why men wear earrings
• Marilyn Magid forwards a story of a powerful spray
• The editor reflects on 23 years of publishing the Spinner
• Tom Telfer suggests interesting sites

Here is an anonymous writer´s contribution to Heroic Stories:

THE WOMAN ON THE CURB

One night in 1976 I was driving home from work after a very long day around eleven p.m. As I turned the corner, I saw a mother standing on the curb with two little boys and a baby in her arms. As I glanced at her, she hailed me in Spanish, her free hand reaching out in supplication. I looked away and continued on, as I was tired and aching for my bed.

I was starting a new career and very into me, me, me - self-involved, and self-centered in the extreme. Suddenly, into my mind flashed a memory. I remembered my own mother taking my two brothers and me to the movies on the bus, while my father worked driving taxi at night. One night as we returned from the movies, we were attacked in our driveway, and my mother screamed and beat the man away from me. We ran into our house and were safe.

I realized that the woman on the curb and her small children were possibly in danger. So I drove around the block and stopped. The mother had a business card in her hand for a car wash which was quite far away. She spoke only Spanish, but I comprehended that her husband was working there and she was trying to take him his dinner.

She had got off the bus at the wrong place and was now walking in the wrong direction - even farther away from her needed destination. To be honest, I was not happy. I regretted stopping, and in my mind I was telling myself I was a patsy. All I could think was, "I´m so tired, now I have a long drive over there and back, and I have to get up very early."

Nonetheless, despite my regretful attitude, I loaded the little boys in the back seat and the mother and baby in the front. When we arrived at the car wash, her husband, the night watchman, was waiting and worrying. He saw his family and his face lit up.

His wife quickly told him the story. His gratitude was effusive, and I felt so ashamed that I had passed her by at first. And I was doubly ashamed by my attitude. It cost me only 45 minutes of my time and I was rewarded by a deep, guiltless sleep that night.

The memory of that mother and her children changed me forever. I see people around me with new eyes and pay attention to them. I´m still grateful to her, because through our encounter I learned a huge lesson about my own self-centeredness. I learned that if you do the right thing, even with the wrong attitude, you´ve still done the right thing.

Now, whenever I become too absorbed in how important I am in this temporal world, I look outward to see where my next lesson will come from. I know I will get a spiritual jolt from an opportunity to help someone.

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CORRESPONDENCE

Zvonko Springer wishes everyone a happy new year, and adds: Everyone grows older with the passing years. In the passing days we have had some happy times and a few difficult and sad ones. With age we become more forgetful, and lose sight of happy memories. There are fewer people with whom we can talk about the old days. There are some good people who help us with our daily lives, and we thank them sincerely for their help.

ED. NOTE: And we wish Ljiljana and Zvonko a happy and healthy new year.

Jean Sterling writes about crossing

THE ORIGINAL BAHIA HONDA BRIDGE

I thought the Bahia Honda Bridge was scary before they built the new one. When I see the old one (which they left intact - people walk on it and fish from it) I can´t believe I drove over that!

The Bahia Honda Bridge is part of the Overseas Highway (Route 1) which connects the Florida Keys to the mainland. The first Bahia Honda Bridge was part of Henry Flagler´s Railroad to Key West. The 1935 hurricane wreaked havoc with Henry´s railroad - destroyed the bridges and a lot of the rail bed.

Eventually Florida bought up the right-of-way and built the Overseas Highway. When they got to Bahia Honda, where the water is deep and flows fast, they plopped Route 1 on top of the rather narrow rail bridge. For years that was the only way to get to Key West. Eventually (sometime in the ´70s) the state built a new four-lane bridge over Bahia Honda.

The old bridge, mostly now used by fishermen, is still visible from the new bridge. The old bridge, perched on top of the old railroad bridge, looks quite precarious and scary, though I didn´t think about it for the years I drove over it to get to Key West. Below is a picture of it as seen from the new bridge.

Tom Telfer writes about

A SENIOR MOMENT

The other night we were flipping through the TV channels and found a hockey game being played by our local team, the London Knights. We have season´s tickets and know all the players´ stats.

It must have been an out-of-town game, we thought, but the banners hanging from the rafters were in our arena.

Checking the team´s schedule, we found no listing for that evening. We were scratching our heads, but then a light came on ... we had been watching a replay of a game!

With all the Christmas preparations our brains were overwhelmed.

Oh well, another Senior Moment.

Burke Dykes forwards this philosophical story:

THE WEIGHT OF THE GLASS

Once upon a time a psychology professor walked around on a stage while teaching stress management principles to an auditorium filled with students. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they´d be asked the typical "glass half empty or glass half full" question. Instead, with a smile on her face, the professor asked, "How heavy is this glass of water I´m holding?"

Students shouted out answers ranging from eight ounces to a couple pounds.

She replied, "From my perspective, the absolute weight of this glass doesn´t matter. It all depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute or two, it´s fairly light. If I hold it for an hour straight, its weight might make my arm ache a little. If I hold it for a day straight, my arm will likely cramp up and feel completely numb and paralyzed, forcing me to drop the glass to the floor. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn´t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me."

As the class shook their heads in agreement, she continued, "Your stresses and worries in life are very much like this glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and you begin to ache a little. Think about them all day long, and you will feel completely numb and paralyzed - incapable of doing anything else until you drop them."

The moral: It´s important to remember to let go of your stresses and worries. No matter what happens during the day, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don´t carry them through the night and into the next day with you. If you still feel the weight of yesterday´s stress, it´s a strong sign that it´s time to put the glass down.

Irene Harvalias shares this

IRISH GHOST STORY

This happened a while ago in Dublin, and even though it sounds like an Alfred Hitchock tale, it´s true.

John Bradford, a Dublin University student, was on the side of the road high-hiking on a very dark night in the midst of a big storm. The night was rolling on and no car went by. The storm was so strong he could hardly see a few feet ahead of him.

Suddenly, he saw a car slowly coming toward him and stopped. John, desperate for shelter and without thinking about it, got into the car and closed the door ... only to realize there was nobody behind the wheel and the engine wasn´t running.

The car started moving slowly. John looked at the road ahead and saw a curve approaching. Scared, he started to pray, begging for his life. Then, just before the car hit the curve, a hand appeared out of nowhere through the window and turned the wheel.

John, paralysed with terror, watched as the hand came through the window, but it never touched or harmed him.

Shortly thereafter, John saw the lights of a pub appear down the road, so gathering strength, he jumped out of the car and ran to it. Wet and out of breath, he rushed inside and started telling everybody about the horrible experience he had just had.

A silence enveloped the pub when everybody realized he was crying ... and wasn´t drunk.

Suddenly, the door opened and two other people walked in from the dark and stormy night. They, like John, were soaked and out of breath.

Looking around and seeing John Bradford sobbing at the bar, one said to the other, "Look, Paddy ... there´s that fooking idiot that got in the car while we were pushing it!"

Catherine Nesbitt sends this story about

MEN´S EARRINGS

Did you ever wonder why earrings became so popular with men?

A man is at work one day when he notices his co-worker is wearing an earring. The man knows his co-worker to be a normally conservative fellow and is curious about his sudden change in "fashion sense."

The man walks up to him and says, "I didn´t know you were into earrings."

"Don´t make such a big deal, it´s only an earring," he replies sheepishly.

His friend falls silent for a few minutes but then his curiosity prods him to ask, "So, how long have you been wearing one?"

"Ever since my wife found it in my car."

I always wondered how this trend got started; now I know.

Marilyn Magid forwards this one about

A POWERFUL PRODUCT

A man was driving along the highway and saw a rabbit hopping across the middle of the road. He swerved to avoid hitting it, but unfortunately the rabbit jumped in front of the car and was hit. The driver, being a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulled over to the side of the road and got out to see what had become of the rabbit. Much to his dismay, the rabbit was dead. The driver felt so awful he began to cry.

A woman driving down the highway saw the man crying on the side of the highway and pulled over. She stepped out of the car and asked the man what was wrong.

"I feel terrible," he explained. "I accidentally hit this rabbit and killed it."

The woman told the man not to worry; she knew what to do. She went to her car trunk and pulled out a spray can. She walked over to the limp, dead rabbit, and sprayed the content of the can onto it.

Miraculously, the rabbit came to life, jumped up, waved its paw at the two humans, and hopped down the road. Fifty metres away the rabbit stopped, turned and waved, and hopped another 50 metres.

The man was astonished. He couldn´t figure out what substance could be in the woman´s spray can. He ran over to the woman and demanded, "What was in your spray can? What did you spray onto that rabbit?"

The woman turned the can around so the man could read the label. It read, "Hare Spray. Restores Life to Dead Hare. Adds Permanent Wave."

FROM THE EDITOR´S DESKTOP

This issue is the last issue of volume 23 of The Tale Spinner.

I have been publishing this newsletter for 23 years, and am wondering if I should leave it at that. The mailing list is reduced, and some early contributors have died, leaving their memories behind. I still miss them.

When I first started the Spinner, people were very willing to write about their lives, their experiences, their travels, their pets - but now most of them are content to read other people´s accounts. They also serve, who only sit and read.

But there are still people who contribute regularly, and many of their names appear in many issues of the newsletter. I thank them for all the material they send. They are proof that people still read the Spinner, and that I am not just talking to myself.

I will be 96 in January, and I sometimes think I should rest on my laurels. But I realize that I need something to be responsible for, apart from this old woman and her cat. I need some reason to get out of bed, and to have something I have to think about and keep on schedule. So as long as my computer and I keep going, I will continue to publish the Tale Spinner.

Thank you to all the kind contributors and readers, and my very best wishes to all of you for a healthy and happy new year!

SUGGESTED SITES

Tom Telfer sends this link to a video we have seen before, but its message is one we all need to hear in these uncertain times:

Tom also forwards the URL for a video of rally driver Ken Block and snowboard champions Zak Hale and Ethan Deiss having fun in the snow:

For New Year´s Eve, Auld Lang Syne performed by pipes and drums:

In Holland´s Got Talent, nine-year-old Amira sings opera to the amazement of the audience and judges:

This police officer punched through a frozen pond to rescue an eight-year-old boy who had fallen through the ice: