Knife Report 

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There is at least one school of thought that life is one "goof up" after another. A friend told me not long ago that when he gets up in the morning he can hardly wait to see what his first "mistake" of the day will be. He elaborated that it isn’t a matter of whether he will "screw up" during the day, but a matter of "when, where and how many" he will make in a day. Actually, I have to agree to some extent with this reasoning. I make more than my share of mistakes each day.

Many years ago, I was responsible for chartering a bus for a group. The trip was to be an all night drive from Salem, Oregon to Oakland, California. I chartered the bus with a local company several months before the date set. I had a vested interest in the success of the trip because I was also to be a passenger. Between the time I chartered the bus and shortly before we left on the trip, I purchased the bus company (Dirty trick!).

When the bus arrived to pick up the group, I climbed on the bus like everyone else and moved to the back where I could relax with my friends.

Everything went well, until about 4:00 a.m. when the bus driver stopped for fuel and food in northern California. He woke everyone up and said that we could eat breakfast at a certain restaurant (there were 4 restaurants) at this stop. One of the passengers asked if we could eat at one of the others instead. He was told that the decision was not where to eat – but whether he wanted to eat. He was told that he could eat at the selected stop, but no where else. At this point I became more interested in the conversation. From the back of the bus I asked the driver why the rule? The driver answered my questions by telling me the same thing. When I inquired further he began to get very rude. At that point, someone near the front of the bus, quietly asked the driver if he knew who I was? The driver said, "no." At that point the person told him, that not only was I the spokesman for the chartering group, but also the owner of the bus company (his employer).

The driver, shocked and embarrassed, quietly muttered a "public apology" and said that anyone could go anywhere they liked, and that he "really didn’t care". I waited until all of the people got off the bus. When I walked to the front, I found quite a different person from the one I had heard from the back of the bus. "Meekness" was one of his obvious traits. I was impressed! He and I got along fine for many years.

Many years ago, our family attended a textbook wedding (and then some). This was a lavish affair. Four sit down dinners for 300 guests over a 3-day period of time (GULP!). Both the bride and the groom’s families had decided to make this wedding a real treat for the families and friends. After all, both the groom and the bride were the youngest of two children in their families, and both families wanted to give their last child the best wedding possible. We were doubly blessed having been close friends for many years with both outstanding and generous families.

At the reception dinner, at one of the Portland’s finest old hotels an incident happened to a hotel worker that was unfortunate. (One of life’s bigger "goof ups.") The father of the bride owned a successful business in the Portland area. He told me early in the evening during the reception that he stayed out of the planning, other than he wanted everything to be "right". Later in the evening he told me the story (which I had already heard in the rumor mill) of the unfortunate meat carver. One meat carver told a guest (one of the employees of the bride’s father’s business) that he could only have one piece of meat. When he politely asked why, he was told, "Because we are trying to conserve!"

What do you think happened to the unfortunate meat carver? Yes, you are right! He didn’t fare as well as the bus driver. The meat carver was not the meat carver any more. (Probably using the wrong knife!) He gave the wrong response at the wrong time to the wrong person.

I was once asked by a friend to sell a set of Boy Scout diaries for the years 1929-1940. I found myself reading some of the diaries which were most interesting. William T. Lueck, Jr. of Dyndee, Illnois, wrote these diaries. In 1929 William (while at Dyndee High School) wrote a poem in his diary. It is inspiring to witness the enthusiasm and positive spirit of youth. This particular poem has in it some thoughts that might help some of us "older" people who can’t wait to see what our mistakes will be for the day.

William must have liked knives (what boy or man doesn’t?). Hopefully… he had a knife to use. I wondered what it was? In any event, the poem is called "Sittin & Whittlin." I don’t know whether this is a poem that he made up, or whether this is one that was, or is well known. I have not heard it before. The poem is as follows:

I am a happy go lucky cuss

Never quarrel and never fuss

Life to me is one sweet song

Sittin and whittling all day long.

Nothin special for me to do

That’s the reason my skies are blue

I’m just sorta going a long

Sittin and whittling all the whole day long.

I don’t ask for any fame, and

I don’t ask for wealth

Grateful with everything

Including darn good health.

Never worry – never blue

There’s a reason I’m telling you

How can anyone go wrong

Sittin and whittlin all day long.

We could learn a lesson from this Boy Scout. Probably more than one. One lesson might be that everyone own a whittler (or other pocket knife). Another, perhaps a more important lesson, would be that we would make life more simple, and "just go along." Perhaps we should adopt the "never quarrel – never fuss" attitude. I’d imagine that both the bus driver and the meat carver wished during the particular evenings mentioned, that they would have followed this lad’s advice. Maybe we should all do a little more sittin, and a little more whittling. Maybe we should be just going along. Maybe we should be grateful for everything. Maybe we should be even a little more "happy go lucky."

Is it possible that life could be "one sweet song"? I’d like to think so.