Walnuts on My Windshield
Friday, October 21, 2005

When we moved into our house in Walnut Shade, there was a post office next door. That was really convenient, because with our church stuff and Scott's work stuff, we did lots of mailing. In addition, our post office box was just a few feet from our door! The post office had leased the building through the end of 1999, and when the lease was up, the post office was unwilling to renew it, mainly because the man who owned the building was a Class A, Top of the Line, Fully Certified Jerk. We later learned that he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease, which may have explained some of it, but Wilkie and his wife, Mary, had effectively alienated the entire neighborhood by the time the post office lease was up.

We put up a mail box out at the highway, started driving five miles to Rockaway Beach to buy stamps, and got used to the distinct lack of traffic next door. A few years went by, during which time Mary and Wilkie, who lived right behind our house, moved out of the neighborhood and tried to sell the "post office."

Enter Don and Eva Deal. They live in Taneyville, some 22 minutes away, and have owned various businesses in the area for a number of years. Don drove through and decided that Walnut Shade needed a grocery store. He persuaded Eva, but Don was wrong. For one thing, we can go nine miles one way and get to Branson, where there's a very nice, big, modern supermarket, at which I have shopped weekly since 1996. Actually, there are several supermarkets in Branson, but Country Mart is the closest and the cheapest. Driving nine miles in the opposite direction takes us to Forsyth, where we can shop at a decent grocery store called Glen's. Not to mention that a mere one mile from our home is the Walnut Shade In and Out, where one can purchase gas and a few odd things like mayonnaise, saltine crackers, and lottery tickets. For no additional charge, at the In and Out, your clothing receives a complimentary penetration of cigarette smoke during the 45 seconds it takes you to run in and pay. So, no, Walnut Shade definitely did NOT need a grocery store.

However, Don convinced Eva that it did, and so began the Spendthrift Deli and Grocery. For the better part of a year, Don, Eva, and their hired help worked to remodel the post office into a grocery store. What they did was actually pretty impressive, but it cost many tens of thousands of dollars. This in a spot in the road that is only ¼ mile between speed limit signs. Walnut Shade is not even incorporated. It is just an area to which the postal service delivers mail. That area stretches maybe five miles in several directions from us here in "downtown," and if you include all the folks who have Walnut Shade mailing addresses (who also have either Rockaway Beach or Chestnutridge phone exchanges and who live in either the Branson or Reeds Spring school districts - life in the country gets complicated!), the population is about 500. We know, because one February when we were trying to get to know folks and build up our church, we invited them all to dinner at our house. About 60 actually came, and yes, a lot of them had the same last names.

So, now we had a store next door, and that had a few - very few - advantages. If I got ready to cook something and realized I had forgotten a key ingredient when I was in town the day before ("town" is Branson, where the grocery is), I could call next door and say, "Eva, do you have any enchilada sauce?" or maybe it was corn syrup, or a green pepper, or a cup of shredded coconut. She always did! She seemed to have absolutely everything! In that tiny store, she had a deli counter where she made all kinds of fresh sandwiches, and she stocked little bits of the widest assortment of groceries you could imagine. She also had candy of all kinds, which we let the kids purchase with their money on Fridays. She always had big hugs for Andrew, and if I couldn't find him, odds were he was at the store.

It's hard to make money in a deli where no one eats lunch and in a grocery store where no one shops, so Don and Eva decided to put in gasoline and diesel. Now, we didn't really cotton to that. For one thing, we are on a private well, and the idea of those huge tanks buried so close to our property really bothered me. What if they leaked or something? If our ground water were contaminated, we'd be in hurting shape. So, I attended the planning and zoning meeting where Don and Eva were applying for a variance. I was very nice, but solidly explained my point of view. Of course, this is Taney County, where all applications for development of any kind are automatically approved, and where law enforcement may be on the take, but I felt better at least having said my two cents' worth. Thankfully, Don and Eva understood and were not offended. The pumps went in, their business increased a bit, and we could buy our mower gas (by this point we were buying most of our car gas in Ozark or Springfield) without choking on cigarette smoke at the In and Out.

Things rocked on at the store for a couple more years. The highway department constructed a new bridge over Bull Creek one-tenth of a mile from out house, and some of those workers began eating breakfast and/or lunch at the store. Eva hired and fired a number of helpers, most of whom stole from her, and none of whom worked as hard as she did. Eva does work harder than just about anyone I know. Don is not in good health (heart attacks, diabetes, cancer, etc.), so she has always run the store virtually single-handedly. She would arrive from Taneyville at 5:45 AM to open at 6:00 AM. She'd work all day till the store closed at 7:00 PM - a little later in the summer - and do that six days a week. On Sundays, she went to Mass and didn't open the store till about noon.

The grind began to wear on Eva. I'd say she and Don are probably both in their sixties. They couldn't find help they could trust and they couldn't keep up the pace without ever having a break. So, they tried to sell the store. By now, they owned it outright, having finally closed a deal with Mary and Wilkie. They tried for two years to sell the store, and at last found buyers in Eric and Denise (mainly Denise) from the Kansas City area. Eva, being somewhat secretive, didn't even tell me it had sold. One morning I went out to walk and she didn't arrive to open. I almost called her, thinking she had overslept, but I figured maybe she had taken Don for a doctor's appointment and would just open late. She never opened. The next day, I saw this strange woman over sweeping the porch. I introduced myself and she said she was Denise, the new owner!

Sometimes, I have a funny feeling about people, and all I can say is that, for no good reason, this woman did not sit well with me - at all. But I was friendly and went on with life. Andrew was heart-broken that Ms. Eva was no longer at the store, but he eventually got over it. He never did like Denise.

Denise had three sons and no husband that we could see. The story was that he was still in Kansas City, where they were waiting for their big house to sell. Maybe so. Levi was 19, Drew 12, and Austin 11. They all four lived in a Fifth Wheel in the tiny four-slot trailer park behind the store. For years, our kids had mowed the store and trailer park for Eva for pay. They asked Denise if she wanted them to do that (it was late October and mowing season was about over), but no, next year her boys would do that.

Levi helped in the store and he could be extremely polite. However, one day I went in there for some minor item and saw an assortment of condoms hanging on the wall by the register. Right by the front door, in plain sight of God and everyone! To add insult to injury, Levi was not in a good mood. He was angry at his mom for some reason, and in talking to me, repeatedly referred to her with the b- word. That was it. I vowed never to do business there again and I didn't.

Drew and Austin were given these two tiny little motorcycles that fall, and they ran them up and down the dirt road until it gave us all headaches. Later on, they got a couple of go-carts, and the noise got worse. Jessica really wanted to win those two to the Lord, and she talked with them at every opportunity, but to no avail. Levi got a girl pregnant, so they had a little wedding ceremony out behind the dumpster one day. Levi had asked Scott to do the ceremony and he had refused. I can't remember exactly when Eric, Denise's husband moved into the Fifth Wheel, but it was a few months later. Meanwhile, they put a big screen TV in the store and had unlimited pizza and beer on Friday and Saturday nights. We cursed that arrangement and prayed that the business would go belly up.

Taney County has the dubious honor of being having more meth labs than almost any county in the United States. You know how the moonshiners did their thing back in the hills and hollers of the Appalachians? Well, the meth producers now do their thing in the hills and hollers of the Ozarks, and we live in a holler. We have some neighbors down the dirt road, David and Tiffany, who aren't married, but have some kids, and to whose home years ago a pickup truck used to come every morning at 5:30 AM (I was out walking and would see it almost every day). No one from their house ever came out and got in the truck - as in, being picked up for work - and the truck was only at the house for a couple minutes. Then it would drive off. I always suspected it was a drug deal, but never knew how to prove it.

Levi and Denise started going down to David and Tiffany's a lot. They also went up the hill past our house to Gene's house. Gene is a weird fellow. He has very long straight blonde hair and two (in his words) "real cool daughters." He is - or was? - married, and he has - or had? - a heat and air business. David and Tiffany, Levi and Denise (and sometimes Eric) and Gene were forever driving back and forth to each other's houses. It was kind of weird to watch.

Eric and Denise also had a bunch of dogs in their Fifth Wheel with them and the boys. The dogs barked a lot. There was more and more traffic into the neighborhood, but less and less business at the store. Eva told me Denise was behind on her payments. Don and Eva had sold the store to them with OWNER FINANCING! Ugh. The whole neighborhood got worse and worse, and I suspected these three families were dealing drugs, but again, how to prove it?

Then Eva told me that she and Don were drawing up papers and they were going to foreclose on the store. Denise wasn't making her payments, so they were kicking them out and re-possessing the store. Denise was given ten days to pay the full price or lose the store. Nothing happened, and on the morning of the 12th day, Don and Eva went into the store and had the locks changed. They also posted some legal papers on the doors about Denise not being allowed in, or something to that effect. That was about 10:00 AM on August 16, and Eva left to take Don to the doctor in Springfield.

That afternoon, all hell broke loose. I was at a meeting and some of the kids were home. Katie later told me she heard an alarm sound but didn't know what it meant and so ignored it. What happened was that Denise came to the store to get some stuff and found that her key no longer worked. So, she broke in. She smashed a window, climbed in, and proceeded to vandalize the store. She ripped an interior hollow-core door off its hinges and stomped a hole in it. She jammed a key into the gasoline console and broke it off, damaging an $800 piece of equipment. She threw coffee and hot sauce all over the walls and floor. She poured some kind of grease or oil onto the floor and set it on fire. She ripped apart the electric deli meat slicer and threw pieces of it into the dumpster. I could go on and on, but the things that woman did to that store were unbelievable.

When I got home, there were several sheriff cars there, and the sheriffs were standing in the dirt road between our house and the store, watching Denise, Eric, Levi, Levi's wife, and Gene hauling things out the back of the store. They took out furniture, the big screen TV, stereo equipment, etc. It looked like a college kid moving stuff out of his apartment. They or some subset of folks must have been living in the store. (It had been closed for over a month.) I watched Gene grab two beer signs and run with them under his arms to the old school bus. Yes, we have a couple of vagabonds living in a school bus at the trailer park, but that is another story. I watched all this out our office window and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the cops weren't doing anything.

I had to leave to take some kids to town. When I got back, different cops were there, as was Eva's car (with a smashed passenger window), Eva, and Don. While I had been gone, Eva had arrived, because when Denise broke in and the alarm went off, the alarm company had called her in Springfield. When she got there, no sheriffs were present. I guess they had finished watching round one of the merchandise removal, or something. Denise cursed Eva and threatened her, and while Don was standing beside their car calling the sheriff, Denise got into Eric's truck and drove it into the car, damaging the car and injuring Don's leg. She then threw gravel in Eva's face, breaking Eva's glasses, and cutting her forehead. On and on it went, and I guess the sheriffs arrived shortly thereafter. Hence the second group of them that I saw when I arrived home the second time.

For another hour or so this second set of officials watched Denise and company continue to haul the rest of their stuff out of the store. An inspector with the sheriff's department spent over three hours there, going through the whole store with Eva and Don, taking pictures of the damage and writing up his report.

When all was said and done, there had been $20,000 - $30,000 of damage done to the store, including what was vandalized and numerous pieces of equipment that had been stolen. There was $1600 of damage to Eva's car, including a shattered window and broken passenger door that couldn't be closed all the way. To date, nothing has been done to the criminals. They still live up at Gene's house, and everyone knows it. They still visit David and Tiffany's house very frequently. There have been no arrests, and no restitution. The stolen refrigeration cases and other items have not been recovered. Because Denise had no car insurance, Don and Eva are out the money for car repairs. Because Denise (in direct violation of her purchase contract) cancelled the insurance on the store two days before this event, Don and Eva are out all the money for the things that were damaged or stolen. They had sunk all their savings for retirement into this store, so they are both now working fulltime at minimum wage jobs to make ends meet. They have mortgages on both their home and the store, and if they can't find a different buyer for the store soon, they will have to re-open it themselves.

Remember, this is Taney County, where all developments are approved no matter what and where, for all I know, law may be on the take.

There are many sad lessons to be learned from this tragedy, but there is a silver lining, and that is what I really wanted to write about today. When I walked through the store with Don, Eva, and the inspector, it was all I could do to keep from crying. The mess, the filth, the debris, the trash, was absolutely unimaginable. Don and Eva were exhausted and totally overwhelmed. I was, too. I came home and thought it over. The store couldn't be re-opened or sold in its present condition. Somehow, that mess would have to be cleaned up. Don and Eva could never do it alone. They surely couldn't hire it done. Then it struck me that that's what the Body of Christ is supposed to do. Scott, of course, was in China at this time, so I told the kids that we were going to help Don and Eva clean the store. I had no idea how, and I had no idea how long it would take, but it was the right thing to do, so we would do it. They agreed that it was the right thing to do, so I called Eva and told her we wanted to help.

Then I thought of AIM. Our big kids are members of Action Impact Missions (AIM). It is a group of Christian homeschoolers who do gospel presentations through mime (and other means) and whose goal is to develop young people into leaders of excellence. They are big on serving and doing things for others when there is nothing in it for AIM. The AIM leaders knew Scott and Jessica were in China, and their whole organization was praying daily for them. They had also told me that if I needed ANYTHING while Scott was gone, to let them know.

I emailed the leaders and explained the situation. I asked if they might be interested in making this an AIM service project. They were very interested and thanked me for the opportunity to serve! We would plan a day a couple weeks out and work from 9:00 AM till noon. Meanwhile, I had gotten a key from Eva, and the kids and I had gone in and worked a few times, just for an hour or so. The task was so huge, though, that it was really discouraging. I decided to focus on just getting the floors and walls clean. That would be an enormous job. If we did that, and maybe tackled the two filthy-beyond-description bathrooms, Eva would be blessed and we could say we had met our goal.

AIM had promised me at least two of their leaders, and they had no idea how many others might come. With our kids, that meant it would be at least seven of us working. I began collecting cleaning supplies and stashing them at the store. The morning of September 20 arrived, hot and clear. They kids and I entered the war zone at 8:45 AM, and at 9:00 AM, up pulled the AIM van with FIVE 20-something AIM leaders! I could have kissed them! They wanted to know what to do, so I showed them the floors and walls of the main room, knowing that it would take all of us to noon just to clean those. Of course, there were other areas, but we weren't going to tackle those. There was the deli area (rotten food smeared everywhere in and around the deli cases), the back storage room (where folks had evidently been living), those two bathrooms (that would gag anyone), and the kitchen. I was glad we were only committed to the walls and floors of the main room!

Andrew (not mine) and George decided to tackle the walls and floor - by themselves! Jenny looked into the kitchen and said, "may I do the kitchen, please?" I could have cried. Becky asked for the deli area. Jared went straight into a bathroom. About that time, the kids (ages 6-16) and moms started arriving. Eventually, there were 27 of us - 9 adults and 18 kids!!! We all worked like wild people for three straight hours, and no one complained. I mean, no one. The only problem I had was so many kids constantly coming up to me and saying, "I finished that, Mrs. Roberts. What would you like me to do now?"

The walls and floor were sparkling. Becky had the deli area gleaming and was scraping goo out of obscure places with toothpicks. Those bathrooms were clean enough for Jesus himself to use! Jared spent 45 minutes in each one, most of the time sitting on the floor to scrub. The back room was cleaned and organized. The empty refrigerator cases were cleaned. All the shelves in the main area were cleaned and straightened. The remaining stock was organized.

And the kitchen, oh my goodness. I later found out Jenny had come with a broken finger, but she didn't even mention that. That woman tore apart an entire commercial kitchen and cleaned it from floor to ceiling. We had a team in there helping her, and they washed, dried, and put away EVERY dish, EVERY piece of silverware, EVERY cooking utensil, and EVERY pot, pan, skillet and lid. They emptied and cleaned every shelf, drawer, and ledge. They scoured pizza pans, ovens, refrigerators, the ventilation hood, and a deep freeze full of nasty food. They even drained and cleaned the deep fryer!!! ALL the equipment was moved out from the walls, and the walls and floors were thoroughly cleaned. At 12:00 noon, that kitchen sparkled like something you'd see at Lowe's!

In short, the AIM folks cleaned the store from top to bottom, and I'm sure the entire building looks better than it had since its old post office days. As the AIM folks were leaving, they thanked us over and over for this opportunity to serve Jesus. Isn't that something???!?!?? And our kids get to be a part of it!

Needless to say, Don and Eva were speechless and terribly thankful. They knew we were going to have a workday, but they didn't expect all that. (Neither did I!) They don't know whether they will be able to sell it or have to re-open it, but it is surely clean enough to do either.

So, the store is quiet now, but the kids and I were able to be a part of making a difference, and that is definitely worth writing about.

Until next time,
Patty

From My Book Pile:

Well, I have been reading (but haven't finished any books yet), and I have been listening to books on tape, but I can only remember the one book I just finished listening to: Colors of the Mountain by Da Chen. I would give it a rank of 3.

I checked out this audio book, because it sounded like it would give me a little insight into Chinese culture. When you are married to a man who spends 25% of his time in China and a lot of the rest of his time thinking about China, it is wise to learn something about the land of his focus!

This book tells of the author's school years. He lived in a very rural town and was from a landlord's family, which was not a good thing during the Cultural Revolution. He was alienated, abused, and in general, treated like dirt for a good many years, despite the fact that he was an excellent scholar and musician. He was at the top of his class, but because his background rendered his future hopeless, he dropped out of school to hang with a gang of thugs and spend his time smoking and drinking.

He later decided to study English, and when the tide turned and college admissions began to be based on test scores rather than on family heritage, he won a scholarship to a prestigious university in Beijing.

The book was depressing; particularly all his smoking, drinking and doing thousands of desperate kowtows to Buddha to try to bribe him to answer his prayers. One good thing about Colors of the Mountain was that the author painted vivid pictures with his words. I really could "see" those colors.

Quote of the Week:

"Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master." ~ Leonardo da Vinci

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