Stranger #4

Wayne Carelock

I met Wayne at the gas station in Houston while we were both filling up our pickups. Just simply said” Hi, how are you?”

“Good, thanks” He responds. “You from Austin?”

I had forgotten I was wearing my “Keep Austin weird” hat. “Oh, no, I just love Austin. It’s one of my favorite cities.”

“Yea it’s a fantastic town” He replies."I live around Austin. I love it.”

He told me he comes to Houston regularly for business. He works for Napo Precast,  a precast concrete company and they do quite a bit of business here in the Houston area.

“So where are you from?” He asks me.

Well I grew up in Lubbock Texas but I now consider my home to be Santa Barbara, California but I rarely go there much.  I tell him about my business and why I’m here in Houston.

“I was raised in Lompoc. It’s defiantly a gorgeous area” He states. (Lompoc is about 40 miles to the north west of Santa Barbara)

“Why did you leave?”

 “My Dad was stationed at Andrews Air Force base but when he was sent to Vietnam my mom moved to Texas and I’ve been here ever since. You know if they could inject an Austin attitude into that West Coast climate, Now that would make the Perfect place.”

“Your kids live here in Texas?”

“I have a daughter here in Houston My son is in New Haven, Connecticut. He doesn’t much like it much up there but He is attending Yale.

“Wow!”

“Yea He’s pretty smart.” He said with pride written all over his face.

As I drive off I begin to think about how we pass up meeting great people every day who are right  there, less than 10 feet away, on the other side of the pump. All we need to do is just open up, start the conversation. What are we scared of?  We have let our mother’s advice, of not talking to strangers, keep us separate from each other.  We have a fear of being thought of as strange or odd, so we just silently stand there and we miss a golden opportunity.  We have to learn to open ourselves up. Release the fear. Don’t let all the negative news stories make us scared of each other. Realize that every person is a wonderful creation of God, with beautiful stories and wonderful gifs to share. All we need to do is ask, reach out. Most people are good decent people.

 And by the way, so are you!