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For Wilshire Baptist Church

Ken knows tires, but more important, he knows people.

Ken is a manager at the Firestone near my parents’ house. I went there on a recent evening to fix a slow tire leak and check out a few other things on my mother’s SUV. We were taking turns staying with my father in hospice care and I stole away for what turned out to be a couple of hours. I’d called ahead and Ken said they could do the work before closing time, but the line for service was long so I’d better get over there.

Continue reading “Where the Rubber Meets the Road”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Before they closed Plano’s Collin Creek Mall in June 2019 to make way for a billion-dollar mixed-use development, they threw a big party and thousands came. My father used to walk there several times a week and he could attest that in the final year it had become a ghost town with the only visitors being walkers like himself.

Local media covered the big closing party, with one reveler saying, “You would meet people here. It was almost like going to church.” 

Continue reading “Open All Hours”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

You can learn a lot when you look into another person’s face. You can learn even more when you have a razor in your hand.

Dad was in the hospital for a week and now is in rehab after breaking his leg. He’s always been a stickler about his appearance, so when he hadn’t shaved in several days, I took my electric razor and offered to do the job for him. He’s been a blade man all his life, and in fact when I was in high school or college and someone gave him an electric razor, he tried it briefly but rejected it and I took it. That being the case, I wasn’t sure if he would let me do it but he said yes.

Continue reading “A Close Shave”