Jeff Hampton – Page 91 – Jeff Hampton, Writer

February 16, 2021

Cold but Safe

For Wilshire Baptist Church

My absolute very first conscious memory is looking out upon a montage of sharp black and white shapes, feeling frightened and crying at the confusion of the contrasts, and yet sensing safety in the clutch of a hand holding mine. All my senses seemed to be firing in that moment, and maybe that’s why I remember it before all others. I’ve asked my mother about this, and she says that in the winter of 1960 when I was one year old, it snowed in Richardson, and she thinks she probably took me out on the back patio to look at the white snow beginning to cover the black dirt of the new, grassless yard.

February 9, 2021February 9, 2021

Testifying

For Wilshire Baptist Church

A couple of days before Christmas I was in a music store, waiting in line to buy a tambourine, and getting impatient. But when I heard the conversation at the counter in front of me, I jumped in and offered my two cents because I believed I had some real-life experience to offer.

February 2, 2021

Cutting in Line

For Wilshire Baptist Church

I wasn’t going to write about getting the COVID vaccine because so many other people need it and should get it before me. But I cut in line – just stumbled into it actually – so here I am.

The short story is I volunteered to drive LeAnn to her authorized, scheduled vaccine appointment, and during her preliminary curbside screening, the nurse looked at me through the open car window and asked if I wanted the vaccine too. I don’t know if it was because of my gray hair or the fact that it was late Friday afternoon and maybe they didn’t want to waste any doses at week’s end, but she asked. I told her I wasn’t old enough, but she said they’d take me if I wanted it. I said, “Okay.”