A Lesson He'll Never Forget

I guess when I was growing up that I may have been a little rambunctious, probably somewhere between Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Not a little angel but also not a little devil.

I will never forget a lesson my father taught me about taking responsibility for my actions. I grew up in a neighborhood with plenty of boys my age. We always got up early during the summer because there was plenty of mischief that required our attention and we certainly wanted to have plenty of time to get into it.

The lesson I learned began on a day when my friend and I just couldn't find any mischief readily available. So we had to make our own. We were very fortunate, I guess you could say, to have lived in a neighborhood where a famous person of the past lived, the former governor of Kentucky, Flem D. Sampson. Now, Governor Sampson lived in a large three-story mansion with a long circular drive surrounded with large pine trees in a secluded well-hidden part of the neighborhood. He even had a servant's quarters, which was no longer occupied, above a garage several hundred yards from the main house. That particular morning my friend and I decided to do some exploring, so what better place than the property of the former governor of Kentucky. As we walked up the long narrow drive we observed all the sights that were, including birdbaths and a goldfish pond, many sights that just filled a pair of boys with thoughts of adventure! Then all of a sudden, we happened upon the unoccupied servant's quarters. Now, this servant's quarters had at least eight or ten windows, all filled with glass. I looked at my friend and he looked at me. Needless to say, you can guess what happened. We proceeded to pick up anything we could find and began breaking out every window in the place. Quite an accomplishment, we thought, for two young boys. Now, this would have been a god place for the story to end, but not in our minds, after all this was quite the accomplishment.

After the breaking of the windows we left in quite a hurry, but returned every so often to see if the glass had been replaced. After a while, thinking that if it had, we could once more practice our throwing accuracy. They were never replaced. However, Governor Sampson must have been aware of what happened because the City Police began patrolling the area quite often. It was on such an occasion that my friend and I were again checking out the windows when the police came by and loaded us up in the back of the police car. Now, the police officer happened to be a relative of mine, so he took my friend home and proceeded to take me home, too. There was only one small difference- as we rounded the curve to my house, he turned on the flashing lights and blew the siren. Needless to say, as we pulled into the drive it caused quite a commotion. My father came out the door, walked up to the police car and saw me in the back seat. The policeman let me out and began to explain to Dad what happened.

My father immediately went into the house and made a phone call. After he finished he told me to get in the car and not ask any questions. He proceeded to drive me to the governor's home. When we arrived he told me to go inside and tell the governor what I had done and that I was willing to pay for the damage I had caused. As the maid opened the door she took me to the governor's study where he was seated behind a desk which looked to be the size of two football fields. The governor was dressed in a three-piece suit. He asked why I was there. Thereafter I began to tell him the story. He never smiled or showed any sign of sympathy, but told me that my father had done the right thing by bringing me to him to admit what I had done. I knew that I would never forget the lesson of being responsible for what I do. He decided to charge me only a dollar for all the windows, but believe me, I paid a fortune in fear and embarrassment. To this day, every time I see a broken window pane, I want to turn and run in the opposite direction.

Associate Pastor Ron Mitchell