By: Marlene Oxender
Those of us who live in a rural area know the reasons why small towns are a nice place to live. We appreciate the quietness of the country, the opportunities for long-standing friendships, and the ways we can look out for each other.
Small town newspapers can be the best – for they are full of important news. The real news. My mother wrote for The Edgerton Earth newspaper, and within her estate is a large collection of articles she’d clipped and saved. A collection I’m still sorting through and reading.
My mother had written a story about a Timex watch that’d been placed on the hood of a car before it traveled into town. Her article was entitled “Traveling watch and ring returned,” and this is what she wrote:
“A beautiful Timex Electronic man’s wristwatch took a ride recently on the hood of a car for over three miles of country road, through Edgerton, across the railroad tracks finally falling off on the road as the auto turned on W. Bement St. north of St. Mary’s Catholic Church.”
“It was found by our 11 year old daughter Jeanette as she was riding her bike on Friday, March 11, traveling west on our street on her way to order fish at the K of C hall for the residents of Park View Nursing home.
The watch band was attached, the month, day and time was correct and when she brought it home, we could not imagine how anyone had lost it. We laid it up on the windowsill where all weekend it kept perfect time.
Tuesday afternoon, I called the Earth office and asked if anyone had inquired about a lost watch, and if not, I was going to put in a found ad.
They said Mrs. Grace Entenman had inquired that morning if a watch had been found. As soon as I knew she was home from her bus route, I called her, and this is the story she told.
She too had come to the Edgerton K of C Hall to get some fish for her family. On leaving the K of C hall, she noticed a ring on the hood of her car and wondered how and why it was there.
After picking up the ring, she went home and showed it to her son. He asked if she had also found the watch which he had also laid on the hood of the car before mounting his motorcycle for a ride. She added they looked and searched all weekend for their precious keepsake watch, and were happy to learn it had been found.
When Mrs. Entenman picked up the watch, she gave a $5.00 reward with a note saying, “For the girl that found the watch – the watch had originally belonged to our son who was killed, so we were happy to get it back. Thank You. Grace Entenman.”
My sister Jeanette does not remember having found the watch. She doesn’t remember having taken carry-out fish dinners to nursing home residents.
She would have been riding her light-green Stingray bike with a plastic basket on the front. She would have traveled over the railroad tracks and headed west on State Route 6 in order to deliver the meals.
My siblings and I recently discussed the $5.00 reward and know it was a generous gift to Jeanette. The value of a dollar back in 1976 is worth $5.30 today, so Mrs. Entenman had given the equivalent of $26.50 to Jeanette.
And the only thing Jeanette did was pick up a watch and take it home – something nearly anyone would have done.
I didn’t know the Entenmans, but I did know their circle of friends who got together on Saturday evenings to play cards. If we had a nickel for every laugh they’d shared together, for every smile and every hug, we’d likely have thousands of nickels.
And it’d be good to know how much they add up to, for it’d be testimony to the true value of friendship. In Grace Entenman’s note to Jeanette, she mentioned the watch had originally belonged to her son who had passed away.
Her son Steven was one of three men who died in a snowmobile accident in 1975 – an accident that forever changed the lives of those in Edgerton.
When Art and Grace Entenman gave Jeanette a thank you note and a five-dollar bill, they probably didn’t know they were “paying it forward.” They simply wanted to thank her in a way that would truly bless her.
Thank goodness for the love between neighbors and friends. For the lessons we learn from the generations before us. For friends who are there for us when we need someone to be there.
My mother wrote that the watch “kept perfect time.” And in perfect time, all of us will catch up with those who arrived at our next destination before we did. Some of us live to be senior citizens, and others have a shorter stay.
When we think of those who’ve gone before us, we often feel as if we weren’t finished with them yet. We had more living to do with them.
A friend of mine was recently telling me about a new work project at his place of employment. The company had not yet decided who was going to be in charge.
I heard him say the words “in charge” and told him that my late brother Stevie, who had Down syndrome, often joked about who was in charge. And once again, Stevie’s one-liner was a cause for laughter, and I felt his angelic presence.
It will soon be fifty years since the three men we loved so dearly – Steven Entenman, Kevin Perry, and Gene Kimpel – transitioned into their next life.
I can’t help but wonder how many times their friends and families felt their angelic presence in those fifty years.
We sometimes need to remind ourselves that those who’ve gone before us never really left us. They are present as we make decisions. As we think new thoughts. As we feel their never-ending love.
Fifty years ago, our wristwatches were made with a second hand that moves around a dial. A second hand that sometimes moves too slowly. Sometimes too quickly. But brings all of us to our final destination.
And so it goes. In perfect time, we’ll catch up with those we weren’t finished with yet. Those we didn’t do enough living with yet. We’ll hear their one-liners once again. We’ll feel their warm embrace, and we’ll pick up where we left off.
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Marlene Oxender is a writer, speaker, and author. She writes about growing up in the small town of Edgerton, her ten siblings, the memorabilia in her parents’ estate, and her late younger brother, Stevie Kimpel, who was born with Down syndrome. Her two recently published books, Picket Fences and Stevie, are available on Amazon. Marlene can be reached at mpoxender@gmail.com