Month: March 2024

Coffee Percs

by Ira Paine, Posted on

I knew something was in the wind, and that wind could completely blow me off my feet. The fact that she brought a fresh mug of black coffee and a huge slice of apple pie was a pretty strong clue also.” 

                    –Lou Bradshaw  (Palouse)
 
Get in here, Pard.  Don’t let the wind blow yuh away!  I don’t see the trees swayin’ so I reckon yur safe this mornin’, but yuh never know, one of them mighty gusts could come up at any time and then yuh’d be in a fix.  Hmmm, course lookin’ at yur girth yuh might only weave a bit.  March, the windy month.  Whooeee, that wind can blow.  We was in Wyomin’ once and low and behold, the wind didn’t blow.  First an’ only time I was ever in Wyomin’ without some kind of wind.  Yuh see, Granny was with us, and she didn’t like the wind, not even a breeze, for some reason it bothered her physically and the good Lord saw fit not to have the wind blowin’ that day.
       Pard, the coffee’s strong this mornin’.  Can yuh smell it?  Ahhh, it’ll get yuh goin’, those innards of yurs will be singin’ happy tunes.  I was thinkin’ Pard, I do that once in a while, that there are all sorts of things brought in by the wind.  There are winds of glad tidin’s and winds that speak of bad omens.  There are winds that will blow yuh off yur feet, and not necessarily the natural type.  There are winds of adversity, and winds that bring the dust a flyin’.  There are those massive tornadoes, then there are the little dust devils that twirl round and round.  There are howlin’ winds, and there are the soft gentle breezes that sure lighten up the soul.  Then there are those blue northers that can sweep through and worry on the bones, but just as quickly there can follow a warm Chinook.  Yep, Pard, yuh just be ready, for this is March, the month of the winds.
       Ahhh, coffee sure hits the spot this mornin’.  I saw a photo recently:  “hot cakes and coffee–10 cents.”  It was not that long ago–1949.  I can remember when coffee came with a meal, it was part of the bargain.  Another little piece of nostalgia, when I was in college we’d go once in a while to the Sycamore Inn to get a cinnamon roll and coffee.  I think it came to 50 cents or 75 cents.  I would always drink enough coffee, it was a dime, to pay for my roll.
       Drink up Pard, I’ve one more story to tell.  I wrote one day last week about work, how important it is, and that we are sore in need of good, quality workers today.  My Grandpa Jones owned a small, yet busy cafe on the corner of Arapaho and 14th Street, next to the Boulder High School.  Back in the spring of 1950, my Mom who was normally a waitress became one of the cooks as Grandpa wouldn’t let her wait tables ’cause she was pregnant with me.  The day before I was born, she fried up 150 hamburgers.  Hmm, imagine that in today’s society.  Yuh know, that’s probably the reason I like hamburgers so much.  Oh, and Grandpa’s nickname was “Wimpy.”  Some of you ol’ timers will understand.
       So, Pard, head on out into the wind.  Pull yur hat down tight, check yur cinch, be trustin’ in the Lord, and ride safe.
        Vaya con Dios.

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

He listened to the sough of the wind in the cedar over his head, low and pleasant, a strange sound, never anything but music.”
                         –Zane Grey  (Fighting Caravans)

       “The wind goes toward the south, And turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, And comes again on its circuit.”
                         –Ecclesiastes 1:6 (NKJV)
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               “Listen to the wind, wonder what he’s sayin’…oooo
                Seems to be a sadness in the sighing of the wind…”
                         –Bob Nolan

               “The wind is the bearer of bad and good tidings
               The weaver of darkness, the bringer of dawn.
               The wind gives the rain, then builds us a rainbow,
               The wind is the singer who sang the first song.”
                         –John Denver

               “The wayward wind is a restless wind,
               A restless wind that yearns to wander…”
                         –Eddy Arnold/Herbert Newman

               “The wind blows where it likes, you can hear the sound of it but you have no idea where it comes from and where it goes. Nor can you tell how a man is born by the wind of the Spirit.”
                         –John 3:8 (Phillips)

March must be started with the wind, after all it is the windy month.  It comes in like a lion, the wind blowing and howling.  I’m no stranger to the wind, I grew up in one of the windiest cities in the United States.  The wind would often go over 100 mph.  I’m not speaking of the winds of a hurricane or a tornado, but the wind sweeping down through the canyons of the Front Range.  Listen, if you didn’t hang on to your hat it would blow it all the way to Kansas.  Annie and I were camping once in the high country on the border of Utah and Wyoming.  It was quite breezy as I put up the tent, and that night the wind came up, blowing and howling.  Annie said that we might get blown away.  I said that the wind might blow down the tent, but it wouldn’t blow it away because we were in it.
       We cannot see the wind, but we can sure feel it and see its effects.  It is one of the major symbols of the Holy Spirit.  And as is stated in John, He blows where He likes.  The Spirit was there at the beginning.  I like to think of Him as the “wind” “hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:2)  As the wind is invisible, so is the Holy Spirit, but we can see His work in us and around us.  We know that He is working in us–sometimes just barely the whisper of a breeze, but at other times the wind rages inside us so that we can hardly stand His presence.
       The story is told this way by F.M. Marsh.  A man said that he did not believe in anything he could not see.  He turned to a Christian to mock him.  “Have you ever seen the Holy Spirit?  Have you ever tasted the Holy Spirit?  Have you ever smelt the Holy Spirit?  Have you ever felt the Holy Spirit?”  The Christian answered “no” to all but the last question, then he turned to the man.  “Have you ever seen a pain?  Have you ever tasted a pain?  Have you ever smelt a pain?  Have you ever felt a pain?”  The man answered in the same way.  The same could be true of the wind.
       The 19th-century Bible scholar, Joseph Rotherham translates John 3:8, thusly, “The Spirit where it pleaseth doth breathe, and the sound thereof thou hearest; but knowest now whence it cometh and whither it goeth, thus is every one born of the Spirit.”  The Spirit moves upon the earth and upon people to do His will and pleasure.  The Holy Spirit in His moving, is not arbitrary, but is sovereign in His dealings.  We cannot think of the Holy Spirit without thinking of the “rushing, mighty wind” that descended upon those waiting in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost.  The word “mighty” means violence and vital activity.  Marsh says this wind is the “power to breathe, power to move, and power to bring.”  This wind was “rushing,” in other words driven.  “When He comes in the rushing of His power, who can stand before His sway?  Saints are melted, consciences are quickened, feelings are stirred, bitternesses are expelled, wrongs are righted, restitutions are made, love is alert, faith is great, hope is buoyant, prayer is real, zeal is fervent, service is willing, humility is patient, temper is sweet, holiness is seen, testimony is effectual, and God is glorified.” (F.M. Marsh)
       The wind is real, you have felt it.  The power of the wind is also real, just as the power of the Holy Spirit is real.  This beginning of March, when you feel the touch of the wind, think on Him, the Holy Spirit.  When you see the leaves blowing and the trees bending in the wind, think on the power of the Holy Spirit.  Let this wind of March that comes in like a lion cause you to cast your thoughts upon the Holy Spirit, the One who seals you.