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Dollar Smile |
Each year this organization of men came to the Children's Home
Society Orphanage. All the boys and girls would get two dollars each.
The men would take us in groups of five to downtown Jacksonville,
Florida, to do some Christmas shopping.
I remember going with this one gentleman three years in a row. He
would take us shopping, then he would ask us if we wanted to go to
the movies. I remember watching him closely when we got to the
theater. I watched him as he pulled out his wallet to pay for our
tickets. He looked over at me and just smiled with his great big
smile. During the movie he bought us all the popcorn and candy that
we wanted. I remember thinking how wonderful it was that someone
would spend their own money on someone like us.
We all laughed at the funny movie and had a really good time. The
man would laugh really hard and then he would pat me on top of the
head. Then he would laugh really hard again and reach over and
rustle my hair. I would just look at him, and he would just keep
smiling with his great big wonderful smile.
That trip to the movies was the first time in my life that I ever
felt as if someone really cared about me. It was a wonderful feeling
which I have never forgotten, even to this day, decades later.
I don't know if that man felt sorry for me, but I do know this:
If I ever win the big lottery, that man will find out that he
carried a million-dollar smile.
This is why I believe it is so important that organizations and
clubs, such as the Shriners and Jaycees, continue to reach out and
help the children who are less fortunate. In my particular case, it
was this one man's personal act of kindness that will be remembered
for years to come. Just one little simple act of kindness.
It is these little-tiny acts that will insure that when some
confused child goes off the deep end one day, he or she will forever
remember that small glimmer of kindness that was shown to them by
someone. That little speck of hope, that little dim light of
goodness that will forever be stuck somewhere in the far reaches of
their confused mind.
I thank you, kind Sir, for a memory which I now share with my
children and grandchildren fifty years later.
-- Roger Dean Kiser, Sr. |
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