No self-respecting geriatric would ever claim mature geezerhood without acknowledging some valuable training in our formative years! One of my early experiences, while being on staff of my home church in El Paso, Texas proved to be an invaluable lesson.
Shortly after graduation from Bible College, I was given the honor of being hired to be the Bus Director of a fleet of seven buses. This ministry was charged with the privilege of picking up children for Sunday School. In addition to those duties, I was also given a class of third graders to teach.
Our fleet consisting of old school buses and one diesel Greyhound, though maintained as well as possible, still had seen their better days. One fateful Sunday, while attempting to park one of these yellow chariots, I drove right into the side of our brand new Gymnasium! Bricks went flying everywhere as I plowed into this beautiful edifice! I am writing this some 37 years after the incident, but I still maintain my innocence...I pushed the brake pedal to the floorboard, but there were no brakes! I thought my brief career was over, I would certainly be fired. No insurance company would pay for the repairs since the same company covered both the bus and the building.
I am happy to report that the dear people of Cielo Vista Park Baptist Church took up a love offering to repair the breach. The pastor forgave me and a dear brother stepped up and relayed how he had driven that same bus returning from his route one Sunday and as he went to stop, the bus continued on through a stop sign...no brakes...thanks Bro. Nelson Pritz. In time, people even thought off the incident in humorous terms. It seems I had accidentally smashed right into the classroom of my own third graders. The going joke was that since our class was growing, I could have devised a better way to expand the space than to ram it! They even composed a song in my honor at the annual Christmas Banquet...how Adrian had "driven ole' yeller bus right through the wall." So you see, I had an early propensity for my oncoming geezerhood. ...Sad, but true!
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