I woke up with a mighty thirst that water could not slake. To quench my thirst, a soda pop, is just what it would take.
\nI headed down to Merkle\u2019s store. The time was eight o\u2019clock. I said good morning to the clerk. He turned and what a shock.
\nThe young man stood there out of place, his bull ring was impressive. It pierced his nose, hung to his lip. Did that mean he\u2019s aggressive?
\nI must admit I was confused. A bull ring for your nose? I\u2019ve seen bulls bellow out with pain as their ring came to a close.
\nWe gave each other searing stares. I swear he stared right through me. Did he see me as I saw him? Dang sure a mystery.
\nI stood there with my cowboy hat, pulled way down past my ears. A toothpick hanging out my mouth. He hadn\u2019t seen that for years.
\nI asked the clerk, \u201cYou got a name?\u201d He said, \u201cMy name is Lee. I moved here from the city and you\u2019re not too sure of me.\u201d
\nAn answer shot right out my mouth. \u201cYou\u2019re some kind of picture. City boy with a bull-ring nose. A statement with a mixture.\u201d
\nLee said, \u201cI\u2019m looking strange to you, I guess I\u2019m out of place. But where I\u2019m from you\u2019d be the one who\u2019d claim stares to his face.
\nLee said, \u201cYour drink is free today. You want a soda pop?\u201d He took my mug and poured some ice, then filled it to the top.
\nHe really got me thinking. It made a lot of sense. Tomorrow when I buy a pop, I won\u2019t be so intense.
\nMy father taught me his own rules. I\u2019m reminded of this one. Treat every person with respect. They\u2019re, too, a mother\u2019s son.
\nI said, \u201cI\u2019d like to make you welcome, from a fool who\u2019d be a friend. Let\u2019s shake and start this over, we can get this on the mend.\u201d
\nI left there feeling humbled and a little bit contrite. But feeling warmth all over from an act that turned out right.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Bryce Angell<\/p>\n
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\u2013 Bryce Angell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I woke up with a mighty thirst that water could not slake. To quench my thirst, a soda pop, is just what it would take. I headed down to Merkle\u2019s store. The time was eight o\u2019clock. I said good morning to the clerk. He turned and what a shock. The young man stood there out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":479,"featured_media":20768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cowboy-poetry","8":"category-commentary"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23052,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23051\/revisions\/23052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}