Story About Mr. G.

Posted July 11, 2009

This post is not health related.

I am writing this post to share a childhood experience with you. As I have blogged in the past, my father was a preacher from the South. He and my mother came to the Bay Area during WWII to work in the shipyards. My father was a mentor to many young aspiring preachers that wanted to join our church. One of those young men I will call “Mr. G” appeared in our church one Sunday morning. I was 14 years old when Mr. G. showed up at that Sunday service. He was very robust. This man had a very humble demeaner about him. That first day when Mr.G. came to our church, after the offering was completed, the pastor asked if any visitors would like to speak.

Mr. G. stood up. He told the entire congregation that he had just been released from San Quentin Prison after serving several years for a major felony and was here to dedicate his life to God. There was something about the honesty in this man’s voice that really stunned the whole congregation. He was welcomed by all. Mr.G was in his mid-20’s. He wasn’t much older than me and my cousins and the other boys in the church back in the early 1960’s. Our hero at the time was the actor Steve Reeves who portrayed “Hercules”, a hero from ancient Greek mythology. Steve Reeves grew up in Oakland, Ca. He graduated in 1948 from Castlemont High in Oakland. This is true. My first year in high school, my desk in social studies had Steve Reeve’s name that he had carved into the inside of the wooden desk cover. I couldn’t believe it!

Mr. G. was very buff. To me and the other boys in the church, Mr. G. was our “Black” Hercules. We adored him. Mr. G. would coach us on how to run high hurdles in track and how to throw blocks while playing football. We LOVED him. Mr. G. became a young deacon in our church. A couple of years later he married a very classy lady 20 to 30 years his senior from our church. She was very pretty. She was the head of the Usher Board. She taught us kids how to ursher in our parishioners and conduct the collections. When I graduated from high school, this lady took me aside one Sunday and explained to me that I was becoming a man. She told me to always take care of my teeth, keep my shoes shined and underwear clean. That was close to 50 years ago and I have not forgotten.

One summer in the early 1960’s I was attending a summer youth convention in Bakersfield, California. If you know anything about California’s central valley, it’s hot in the summertime! One morning that week before going to our church, myself, Michael, my cousin Ronnie, and George were sitting by the pool. This was a typical Highway 99 motel with the U shape and a pool in the middle. Suddenly a shadow passed over us and there was a big splash in the pool! Mr. G. had dove off the balcony of the 2nd floor of this motel and flew into the pool! We boys were catatonic! We dared each other to try to duplicate that dive. None of us would. We were too young, we had no experience and we were too scared.

This happend almost 50 years ago and I remember it like it happened this afternoon. Many years later Mr. G. became the Bishop of our church that he had joined right after being released from prison. He is one of the most loved and respected pastors in this country. He has done the same thing my father was doing, training and nurturing future ministers. In retrospect, each of us has a role to play during our time here on this planet. We make mistakes. That will continue to happen. We also do good things. You NEVER know who is watching and really learning from your experiences. I see Bishop G. several times a year. We laugh and talk about the years past. I always tell him that the memory of that morning he jumped off that second floor balcony into the motel pool is etched into my brain forever! The values and the strengths of life this ex-prisoner gave me will last my lifetime.

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