"Mr Blooown, I hep you?"

I remember when my kids were very small, I used to watch them playing outside from the kitchen window and wonder what type of people they would grow up to be.

Yesterday, I sat on a bench outside a café, waiting for Rescue Ranger to meet us for breakfast. I heard him before his truck came into view from behind the trees along the street. His windows were down and snatches of lyrics rolled across the lawn at me:

“I feel no shame
I'm proud of where I came from
I was born and raised in the boondocks
One thing I know
No matter where I go
I keep my heart and soul in the boondocks”

I watched him stop in the street, patiently waving pedestrians across ahead of him and realized that who he would become, had really, always been apparent.

“It's where I learned about living
It's where I learned about love
It's where I learned about working hard
And having a little was just enough”

Before MM joined the Air Force, we lived in a little town in the Northern California mountains, in a little old white house with a covered front porch, and a cherry tree in the front yard.

We lived next door to the best neighbors in the world, The Browns. Mr. Brown was a retired millwright who had, along with Mrs. Brown, lived in the same house for over 40 years and raised 4 good daughters. Mr. Brown had grown up in North Carolina and spent some years in the Coast Guard as a young man. Rescue Ranger loved and adored Mr. Brown.

When Rescue Ranger disappeared from sight, I always knew right where to find his four year old self…. Either peering with one eye through the slats in the fence boards to see what Mr. Brown was busy doing and calling out, “Mr Blooooown, I hep you?”…or completely on the other side of the fence already ”helping” Mr. Brown.

Mr. Brown was always doing something fascinating that usually employed the aid of some sort of tool….which was just up Rescue Rangers alley….in fact, the noisier the tool the better. Even at four, he liked to get up in the morning, pull on his boots and get outside to DO something.

“It's where I learned about Jesus
And knowing where I stand
You can take it or leave it, this is me
This is who I am”

When RR had finished helping Mr. Brown on whatever job he was given, he would go on into the Brown’s kitchen through the back door and sit at the kitchen table under the painting of the old man saying grace. Mrs. Brown would give him a cookie and some milk. Mrs. Brown was good like that. Her home was never without a fresh homemade cookie, which is precisely what a hungry boy needs after a hard job.

I smiled watching my son in his pickup. Watching his fingers tapping time to the music, knowing that they were probably grease stained, as he waited for pedestrians. He was always who he would become…..and I am grateful to the Browns, for the good example they set, which helped our son solidify his own values.

Song lyrics, Little Big Town: Boondocks.