Roy Exum
About 30 years ago, a man in Kentucky, Bob King, was in the floor playing with his eight-year-old son, Mike, when he picked up a Hot Wheels’ replica of a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air and told his boy that the ’57 Chevy was his favorite car of all time. “They were made the year I was born,” he explained.
He even told young Mike with a laugh, “When you become a doctor or a lawyer, I want you to get me one,” and while his memory is now hazy, Mike promised, “I’ll do that Dad.” On his Facebook post not long ago, Mike wrote that he made that promise because his dad always wanted a 1957 Chevy, but could never afford one.
Bob King grew up in a family of seven children – it was a struggle -- but he adored the hooded headlights and the fins in back of the classic car. Instead of a Chevy, Bob King became a fabulous father. Want proof? Earlier this summer, Bob was playing the toss game “Cornhole” with his grandchildren as his family celebrated his 57th birthday. He happened to be adjusting a brick behind one of the boards when his daughter, Michelle, caught her Dad’s eye and pointed towards the garage.
There sat a beautiful 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air. Bob was stunned and then squeaked “no” before Mike told him, “That’s yours. Happy Birthday.” No less than 13.5 million have now seen the video that immediately went viral. “It wasn't staged, so it was just raw emotion," Mike King said. "For a big guy like him to just break down like a kid touched people in different ways."
Since then, a lot more has happened. Two of the country’s top restoration companies, Woody’s Hot Rodz in Lawrenceburg, In., and Golden Star Classic Auto Parts in Lewisville, Tx., have seen the video and reached out to the King family, telling them it will take some frantic work but they’ll put the car in such mint condition it will be featured at the huge SEMA Car Show in Las Vegas this November. They also added, “No sir, you won’t owe us a dime.”
Now what the video does not show allow me to bring into sharp focus. Mike, who searched for such a car for two years before buying a classic in New Hampshire, is not Bob’s biological son. Bob didn’t come along until Mike’s real father left his son and his mother. “He had two kids before me and mom, but he has never treated me any differently … how can you really repay that?”’ Mike told the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Mike actually started saving for the car when he worked at a golf course when he was 15. As his step-father’s 57th birthday approached, Mike worked 60-hour weeks for several months, using the overtime money to help finance the car.
One person who watched the video wrote on the website Reddit, “As a father, the most touching part for me is the promise of an eight-year-old fulfilled. Man, for your dad to see that car in the garage, just like you told him it would be … I guarantee you he was instantly transported back to see that 8-year-old kid in you.” Then the comment added the obvious: “He realized two things: 1) You love him. And you loved him as a kid. 2) He raised a good man. That’s the best birthday gift any dad could ever ask for.”
Click here to see the video.
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There is a lady named Rachael Scott who put a casual note on her Facebook page that has just gone viral. If there is anything that teaches us how to be the people we ought to be, it's this, and it is the reason millions are now reading what she wrote.
I tried to find out about Rachael – her Facebook page gives no clues – but I’m betting that she, the wife of a pastor with three darling children, lives somewhere in middle Georgia. It seems that Rachael was making a hurried trip to the grocery store not long ago when she got in the checkout line behind a family who, from the look of things, was on a tight budget.
It was a mother with two little girls and they were meticulously sorting through their grocery buggy, placing items that were necessities on one side and things they “wanted,” like a box of Popsicles, on the other. That’s when Rachael barged in and this is what her Facebook page said:
“I felt the Lord say buy it. Our family lives well and we have what we need and enough for extras. I didn’t have a clue what it would cost but I said, yes Lord. I spoke up and said go ahead get those … the Lord is paying for those extras today. The mom just looked at me. I was trying to not make a big deal and just do it, but I saw one of the little girl’s wipe tears from her eyes and it almost broke me.”
Is that great or what? John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach at UCLA, lived in the staunch belief, “You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.” I also love the proverb, “The only people who you should try to get even are those who have helped you.”
royexum@aol.com