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Show llw ludii mho Iwad hit a puppur Lruu I' ieiiienlly we lie;,r people Siiy how callous we all lire, especially in America . . . how we are all "loo wrapped up in ourselves, too busy willi our own problems, to relate lo Christmas". Much of (lie time we deserve de-serve this comment. Probably Prob-ably because we think we liave to build defenses against other, outside stimuli, stim-uli, to try to keep intact some remnant of our own personality person-ality which so far has escaped escap-ed computerization. Hut one November, not too long ago, tin? daily papers pa-pers had occasion to record a little event that disputed this cliche, (if you will). Here is how the story went: A lady of some 75 years or so who lives in a small town in Southern California suffered the loss of her home, by fire. We shall call her Mrs. Sanchez. All alone in the world, the disaster might have over- whelmed some lesser person. Bui not Mis. San he.. She. gathered her few belongings be-longings and camped out under un-der a pepper tree on her remote re-mote hilltop. She had managed man-aged to salvage a beach umbrella, a picnic table and a sleeping bag, largely because be-cause they happened to be out on the grounds when the fire erupted. And her pet (logs. One rimming, as she was dusting herself off, a phone company truck arrived and the man informed her that the company would like to install a wall phone wherever wher-ever it would be convenient for her. "A wall phone! Where else, but on my pepper tree!" And so il was installed. Even such a big concern as the, phone company had been muck lo respond to a patron's need, no doubt reported re-ported by one of Mrs. Sanchez' San-chez' neighbors. People were involved in the plight of this long-time resident in distress, and especially es-pecially because of her indomitable in-domitable spirit, her never-say-die attitude. Weeks went by and Mrs. Sanchez went about clearing her lot, keeping her "quarters" "quar-ters" as clean as she could, not only for herself, but for her pets. Thanks to the mode-rate Southern California weather Mrs. Sanchez "made do" very well . . . until the late December winds blew in from the sea and the threat ol rain hovered darkly over the little homesite. Then the neighbors pitched pitch-ed in, and on their own, without a by - your - leave from Mrs. Sanchez, they built a small new home for her with their own hands, and their own tools. By Christmas Day Mrs. Sanchez had much cause to be thankful. Her Christmas gift was there for all to see; but perhaps the townfolk enjoyed en-joyed the finest gift of all . . . the warmth of love in their neighbor's eyes. |