Many years ago maybe forty, we lived in a small town in South Dakota. The house was huge and it had a good sized unattached garage. It was probably a carriage house originally.
One day there was a knock at the door. An elderly man and a younger lady explained why they were there.
Many years ago the man had planted many of the big tall trees in our yard. They were huge trees. Many of them were elm threes and presented much needed shade in the hot summers.
The man wanted to walk around the house and look to see the changes and the things that still looked the same.
He wanted to go to the garage as quickly as he could. He was a big man with white hair and a quick smile.
When he got to the garage he got very quiet. He kind of shook his head and then he closed his eyes. He was remembering when he was a young man and things that had happened years and years ago in that building. This unexpected visitor had invented the first vending machine in our garage!!
He looked at the house and smiled and then he looked at my children. He said that shortly before we bought the house he had wanted to buy back the house and have it bulldozed down because it was in such bad repair. He then found out that my husband and I had bought it so he couldn’t go ahead with his plan. When he saw what we had done with his old home, he was very pleased.
Isn’t it interesting how you just never know who is going to be behind the door when you open it? That was a very interesting visit. I just remembered that visit the other day when I saw someone use a vending machine. The elderly man sold his rights to the patent and made a lot of money, however he could have been a billionaire if he had not, I am sure. I think it is kind of like winning the lottery and having the choice of taking lump sum vs. cash every year for life. Hmm.
How cool!
ReplyDelete