A 6 Day Squeak

Mother:  The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Me: What?
Mother:  The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

We all do it.  We think in pictures.  Such as dog.....enter the breed thought of here.  What I saw in response to her old saying was a wheel from a covered wagon, squeaking and then someone putting grease on it.  Problem solved.  Being a slow learner, it was adulthood before the real meaning sunk in.

I do not even know his name.  He was just a funny looking old man.  I use the word old because, being born in the mid 1950's, he could of been my age.  But, I don't think in old terms and avoid mirrors.


In the entire time I have lived in this new place, I probably only saw him maybe once every two months.  When I did see him, on my morning walk, he was always sitting on the sidewalk, outside his apartment.  He always wore one of those one piece jumper looking things.....things funny old men wear.  His hair always stuck up all over his head, as if he had just crawled out of bed and he was always smoking a cigarette.  The only other things I knew about him were 1, he was a horder and 2, he had a small weather station next to his front door. 

Being from a small mid-western town, I practically always speak to people I meet.  I use the word 'practically' because I have learned that speaking to everyone in a city of over 400,000 people can not always work to my advantage.  Even a blind pig can find an acorn.  So, the nut ratio is a lot higher here.  

Each time I saw this funny old man with his wild hair, jumpsuit and smoke, I always spoke.  It was just a hello or a small tid-bit about the weather.  I never stopped walking and he never moved from his position either.  

I really had not noticed that I had not seen him in awhile.  After all, one cannot be expected to calculate a once in every two month happenstance.  Then, I heard that he had a stroke.  He had a stroke and laid in his apartment for 6 days before a family member found him.  His weather station is gone now and he is somewhere in a nursing home.

Check on people.  Check on your neighbor....even if you do not like them.  Call someone who may not have many friends or perhaps no close family members.  If the thought of them comes into your mind, pay attention, you could save a life or maybe lessen several days of suffering.  If you live next door to a whackadoodle acorn, be the squeaky wheel and alert the proper authorities.  Eventually, they will get tired of the squeak and get out the grease.