When I was young there was an older man in our church who I thought was the crankiest old geezer I had ever met. His name was Luther Simmons. One day while driving around town, I went past his house and noticed that his yard had not been cut in a long time. The next Sunday I asked him about it and he said that his lawn mower was broken and one of his kids usually comes over to cut the lawn but had not been there in a while. The next week I went over and cut his lawn and left before he and his wife came home. A couple of weeks later I went back and cut his lawn again, but this time he caught me in the act. He was very appreciative that I was doing this for him. I think I mowed his lawn about three times before his son started to mow it for him.

Not long after that, Mr. Simmons started baking bread to have something to do. Before long he was bringing free freshly baked bread to people he knew and respected. One day I was at work at Stapp Towing, a tug boat/barge company, during lunch time Mr. Simmons pulled into the parking lot. We were all watching him and wondering why he was there. Apparently I was not the only one who thought he was a cranky old man. He walks in with a sack and walks over to me, hands me the sack and walks out. He didn’t say a word. I looked into the sack and there was a fresh loaf of bread. I can’t tell you how much that made my day. It also took some explaining to my coworkers. For several years, once a week from that point on, I got a fresh loaf of bread from Mr. Simmons. I really love bread, probably too much. Today, I miss those fresh loafs of bread Mr. Simmons brought me.