Tag: People

It’s nine o’clock on a Sunday

March 30, 2026

Of course, I am speaking of AM. Billy Joel begins his song “Piano Man” with five o’clock on a Saturday, which is PM. He is speaking of the bar that he is playing at. He then describes the crowd that walks in, sits down, and has a few. The TV sitcom “Cheers” theme song was “Where Everybody Knows Your Name.”

I always thought that it was your local church. You can tell which one I go to more often. Nine o’clock on a Sunday refers to going to church. I would like to talk about some of the general types of characters that you might see on a Sunday morning.

We all know that the pastor will be there. When I am listing these descriptions of folks, your pastor or deacon, etc., may show up under these. Some of the members of the congregation at your church may overlap in these areas. They are all meant to be humorous and not insulting to anyone, even me.

Susy Sunshine is there every week with a smile on her face. She’s happy, and the other ladies wonder why. They think she must be drunk or on drugs to be that happy all the time. She’s just putting on a face because her husband just left her with two kids and took off with his secretary.

Nicholas Nobody walks in the door, and the greeter shakes his hand. He walks with his head down as no one speaks his name or says a word to him except for Jocular Jed. More on him later. He’s new and wonders if he should even have come.

The sports fanatic is there every week unless the football, hockey, baseball, lacrosse, or tidily wink match starts before church ends. They are there religiously when it does not interfere with these. Don’t worry, they will make up for the tithes they miss from their winnings in sports betting.

I already mentioned Jed, and I used the term jocular because he is the guy who always tells jokes. Some are funny, others are not. Part of them don’t even make sense. They all take too long to tell. At least Nicholas smiles at most of the things Jed tells him. Jed knows that most of the others think he’s foolish, and he considers himself a fool for Christ.

It’s time to think of the ones that are hiding under the pews. That’s right, the children. They crawl from the front to the back, looking for that squirrel that Ray Stevens sang the song about. They start out with mom and dad and sing all the songs that they know.

The teenagers are sitting somewhere. They may be scattered or in a group. If the church has a youth minister, he and his wife are close to this group. These are the future of the Church. They need love and encouragement.

There is one last group that should never be forgotten in the church. These are the older adults. We have been around for longer than any others. Some of us are grandparents or great-grandparents. We used to be the backbone of the body and are now viewed as the last generation.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

Tools

March 1, 2026

I’ve used a lot of them in my life. This is the first in a series of columns that are on these useful instruments. Anthropology tells us that these are signs of creatures being humanlike. Genesis does not bother to tell us when the wheel or other tools were invented.

Fire is another tool that Moses did not see fit to discuss. Much has been written about it. I’ll talk more about it another time. When I saved this file, I had to put it in a category, and I chose the Words file. They are one of my favorite tools.

The thought that sparked this article was my splitting maul. I know many of you are not familiar with this apparatus. I purchased mine over thirty years ago. We had moved onto Talmage Street to the second home that we owned. It had a wood stove in the family room.

These were invented by Ben Franklin. The wood stove, not the splitting maul. Our stove was not a Franklin type, but it was efficient enough to supplement the heating in our four-bedroom, two-bath house. I am probably incorrect when I say Ben invented the stove. He developed the Franklin Stove. I also probably need to be more specific about wood stoves.

In the nineteen-eighties I saw a picture of a wood stove that was only good for one use. It was not safe. It was made of wood. I am talking of a steel unit designed to burn wood. Today I split wood to fuel our fireplace in our current home. This is considered a luxury item in today’s standards.

Before gas, coal, or central heating, it was common in every structure. Our first load of wood was purchased by my mother. It came cut and split. Have you seen those small bundles of wood at grocery and home stores? They usually appear in the fall. Those are for apartment dwellers that have a fireplace for decorative purposes.

Some of my friends began bringing us cut logs for our stove. It must be sacked and cured to burn properly. I cover mine with a tarp to keep it relatively dry. It was not long before I became aware of our need for a device to split the larger logs. That is when I purchased my maul. You can split with an axe, but it is not as efficient as a triangular head mail.

I learned this from my travels as a salesman at the time. Some of my customers sold these items in many designs and styles. I even called on one plant that manufactured stoves, which stocked assorted accessories for the stoves. I discussed the splitting mauls with the salesmen at these companies and discovered one that I thought was best for me.

It has a heavy triangular steel head welded to a steel handle with a cushioned grip. Buying it was the easy part. Learning how to use it properly has taken me many years. The best way that I have discovered is to place the log to be split on a shorter log. You raise the maul and allow the weight of the head to propel it down with the aid of gravity.

The trick is to hit the end of the log in a spot that will split. This takes trial and error with each different log. That first winter after I had my maul, I learned the best time to split wood was when it was frozen. The fibers are more rigid and separate more easily at twenty degrees Fahrenheit or less.

I am sure many of you wonder why I just wasted your time explaining all of this. That is the thing about all tools. Some of us use them, and others care less about those they do not need. Is that how you treat people? I hope not.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

Important people

January 14, 2026

My kid came home from school talking about the weird lunch lady.

“Mom, she’s so strange. She memorizes everyone’s name by the third day. Like, all 600 kids.”

I figured she was exaggerating. Teenagers do that. Then parent-teacher night happened. I was running late, hadn’t eaten, saw the cafeteria was open. Grabbed a sandwich. The lunch lady, older woman with gray hair in a hairnet, was cleaning tables.

“You’re Zoe’s mom,” she said without looking up.

I stopped. “How’d you know?”

“Same eyes. She sits table seven, always picks the apples nobody wants because they’re bruised. Drinks chocolate milk even though she’s lactose intolerant. Hurts herself rather than waste food.”

I stood there, stunned. “You know this about my daughter?”

“I know it about all of them.”

She kept wiping tables. Started talking, not to me exactly, just… talking.

“Marcus, table three, his dad left last year. Always takes double servings on Fridays because there’s less food at home on weekends. Jennifer counts calories out loud to punish herself. Brett throws away lunches his mom packs because kids make fun of the ethnic food, but he’s starving by sixth period. Ashley’s parents are divorcing, she stress-eats in the bathroom.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

She finally looked at me. “Because you’re all at parent-teacher conferences talking about grades. Nobody’s talking about this. About who’s eating, who’s not, who’s hurting.”

“What do you do about it?”

“What can I do? I’m the lunch lady. I make sure Marcus gets those extra servings without asking. I tell Jennifer the calorie counts are wrong, lower than they are. I pack Brett containers of his mom’s food labeled as ‘cafeteria leftovers’ so he can eat it without shame. I bought Zoe lactose-free chocolate milk with my own money, tell her we’re trying a new brand.”

I felt like I’d been punched.

“Does anyone know you do this?”

“The kids who need to know, know. That’s enough.”

I went home and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Started asking Zoe questions. She confirmed everything.

“Yeah, Mrs. Chen just… sees people. She stopped my friend from… she helped when nobody else noticed.”

Turns out, Mrs. Chen had worked at that school for 22 years. Made $14 an hour. Knew the story of every struggling kid who came through her lunch line. Never reported it, never made it official, just adjusted portions, swapped items, paid for things quietly. Teachers didn’t know the extent. Administrators had no idea. She just showed up, served food, and saved kids in ways nobody measured.

Last year, Mrs. Chen had a stroke. She had to retire. The school hired someone new. Efficient. Fast. Didn’t learn names. Within three months, the guidance counselor’s office was flooded. Kids breaking down. Nobody could figure out why. Until one kid finally said it:

“Mrs. Chen knew when we were drowning. She threw life preservers disguised as extra tater tots. Now nobody’s watching.”

The school brought Mrs. Chen back. Part-time. Not to serve food. Just to be there. They called her position “Student Wellness Observer.”

She’s 68 now, walks with a cane, can’t lift heavy trays anymore. But she still memorizes all 600 names by the third day. Still knows who needs what. Still saves kids during lunch periods when everyone else is just serving food.

My daughter graduated last month. In her speech, she thanked Mrs. Chen.

“Some people teach math. Some teach history. Mrs. Chen taught us that being seen is sometimes the only thing standing between surviving and giving up.”

The whole cafeteria stood up. Turns out, weird lunch ladies who memorize names?

They’re the most important people in the building.

Let this story reach more hearts….

I took this story from a Facebook post a friend shared. I’ve tried to identify this author. Below I have given a copyright to Grace Jenkins who was listed as the original contributor. If this is yours, advise me and show me where and when you first published it and I will change my copyright to credit you. If you have a story you wish for ne to share with others, contact me. Thanks, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

©Copyright 2026 by Grace Jenkins