Take life's lessons to heart when ringing in new year
JERRY AULDS

My year 2004 began not with resolutions, but with lessons gleaned from 2003. Lessons about the wondrous value and utility of a little sister, why an El Campo husband's going to be the biggest Ricebird fan in 2004, and the inspiration of an El Campo friend's care and kindness for others.

Lesson one: If you are a teenage boy with an automobile, a valid driver's license, and you don't have a little sister, chide your parents and tell them to get busy.

In the meantime, make friends with a classmate who is the big brother of one of those marvelous creatures. Contrary to what you might think, little sisters are not a pain but a blessing. By the way, I speak on good authority, having a wonderful little sister of my own.

At a fondue party following a Christmas Eve candlelight service, a vivacious 50-something matron provided me with compelling evidence in favor of little sisters like herself. She began by saying she was the youngest of a family of four, with two brothers, one 11 years and the other 12 years older than she, and a sister 13 years older.

"I loved my brothers. From the time I was 5 years old, they took me everywhere with them - football games, the drive-in, school plays - their high school years were wonderful for me!" she remembered with obvious delight.

As we both skewered pieces of sirloin and held them in the sizzling oil, she confided that it was after she graduated from college when she experienced the big letdown.

It was while she was recalling those wonderful years with her brothers to her big sister that her sister burst her balloon of happiness.

"You know why they took you everywhere with them? What teenage girl could resist guys who were so kind and loving to their cute little sister? Honey, you were 'chick bait!'" her big sister revealed.

My new friend has long since forgiven her conniving big brothers. "They really did love me - it was just that I was also useful to them," she explained as we moved over to the chocolate fondue pot.

Lesson two: There are obvious benefits from becoming an avid Ricebird sports fan.

A "couch potato," stay-at-home El Campo husband, with a wife who bleeds "Ricebird Red," never misses a game, and follows the team wherever they go, learned that painful lesson this past year, following the Ricebirds' memorable run in the high school football playoffs, where they advanced further than any other Ricebird team has done since 1967.

Upon returning home after the 'Birds final game in their remarkable season, the emotionally drained wife's still-hoarse-from-cheering first words to her slug-a-bed hubby were, "Well, it was a grueling but great 3-1/2 months of football and thrills for me, while you got rested up! Now, it's time for you to get busy catching up with my backlog of 'honey-do's,'" she warned him.

The last I heard, he's already bought season tickets for all Ricebird athletic events this year, and he's a Life Member of the Ricebird Athletic Booster Club.

Lesson three: Maybe the old Hebrew saying is correct, "One good act can save the world."

My friends Craig and Debbie Radley are the owners of Pincher's Restaurant in El Campo.

While I didn't personally see her do these things, I have it on good authority that Debbie, while always on the run taking care of the restaurant and her family, still makes time to give to and care for others.

"She does so much good no one knows about," my witness told me. "Like, this year when one of her former employees' 4-year-old grandchild died, Debbie opened up the restaurant and fed approximately 20 mourning family members at no expense to them. Later, when she learned that a young girl and her family were struggling, Debbie not only provided clothes and food for all of them, she also helped take care of the young girl when she was hospitalized later in the year."

My resolutions for the year 2004? I resolve to apply the lessons I learned in 2003:

Little Sis, thanks for the honor of being your big brother for 60 years!

Dayle, get out the checkbook. We only have six months to pay our 2004 Booster Club dues. Go 'Birds!

Debbie, thanks for your good works that made life better for those people. I resolve to join with her and others to commit a few random acts of kindness of our own this year.

The result?

A better world, one act at a time.

This classic Jerry Aulds column first appeared in the El Campo Leader- News on Jan. 3, 2004.