Grandma Lou and Grandpa Ron took me home just as winter was setting in.
Now, keep in mind—I’m a little Southern boy, born and raised where snow is about as common as a unicorn sighting. So when I first saw snow, I had no clue what it was.
I still had a pretty good vocabulary back then—way beyond what most kids could dream of.
One time, years later, I was hanging out with my mom, and she asked me,56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLDNN9HLkRL
“Do you still know what congeniality means?”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWJArg8zR01
And I said, “No.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBNYYREGU8C
She laughed and told me we were watching the Miss America pageant when I was two, and I asked her,56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKLxHneST3F
“Am I Mr. Congeniality?”
That’s when I realized: I had a vocabulary most kids could only dream about.
So, when we finally got to Grandma and Grandpa’s house and Grandpa tried to put me down in the snow, I wasn’t about to let that happen without a fight.
I looked at him and said,56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeLBqtAtdyZ
“No! You ain’t puttin’ me down in that bird poop. Ew!”
Snow might have been a mystery, but some things—even at two years old—were crystal clear.
Grandpa looked at me and said,56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgWzCZ9qKgJ
“Bud, it ain’t bird poop. It’s snow.”
I looked him dead in the eye and said,56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgi3yDCJzD3
“Don’t care. Ew! Don’t know what that stuff is.”
But of course, they sat me down in it anyway.
I put my hand on the snow. It was cold. Real cold. Like, why cold?
I ran straight to the back door, shivering and not looking back.
Grandma still has that sign on her back porch that says,56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoudpcFf09v
“Backdoor Guests Are Best.”
Guess even back then, I wasn’t just any guest—I was family.
I guess even back then, I wasn’t exactly a guest.
Now, I’m not going to go over every little “evil” thing I did while living with my grandparents—that would take forever.
But I will tell you this:56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaua9HN1RLG
When I was four, I ran away from home.
Not because I wanted to see the world or anything fancy like that.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxZPqVeMJKL
Nope.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaoBIG0yzNU
I just didn’t want to do chores.
I had gotten this little plastic cow on a leash for Christmas, and I took him with me when I went over to the next-door neighbor’s house.
We called her Grandma Coe—because that’s just what you do in the South.
Grandma Coe looked at me and said,56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgcRPVnJjaA
“Darlin’, you can’t stay here. You gotta go back to your Grandma’s.”
So she called ahead, and Grandma Lou was waiting.
When I saw Grandma Lou, spanked me on the botom, and then I said if you spank me you gotta spank cow he 's my cacomplis. if that cow could talk it would have said, snitches get stiches.
The next year, I went to two weeks of preschool summer camp at the Indiana School for the Blind.
Now, I gotta tell you—there was a pool at Sals Park, and I got dunked by an older student.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡikpESDPCcK
Almost drowned twice.
Yeah, not exactly the best swim lessons ever.
But other than that, it was a good time.
After camp, I started kindergarten at Lambert Hall at the Indiana School for the Blind.
My kindergarten teacher was Miss Francoviac.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2rtjqsTYl3
She was patient and kind—exactly what a little blind kid like me needed to start figuring things out.
So, the first week at school, they had this giant snake pillow in our classroom.
I asked if it had a name.
Miss Warren, our class aide, said,56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8K7ElydC7y
“No, it doesn’t have a name. Why don’t you name it?”
Well, the week before school started, I’d had a Faygo Redpop soda.
And that snake pillow was bright red—just like my soda.
So I named it Redpop.
And just like that, Redpop the snake became part of the class.
Miss Murray was the boss of our house parents.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT04v4ZaYg5
But she wasn’t just some authority figure with a clipboard and a whistle.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhPsZHdNTWX
She actually played with us kids.
One time, she took us for a ride on this old horse wagon. We were laughing, bouncing around, having the time of our lives.
But after a while, she stopped and said,56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGBl5eojnmL
“Alright, kids—you gotta get off.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4P3o7Ik3fV
This is a horse buggy, not a Miss Murray buggy!”
We groaned and begged for one more ride, but she just laughed that Miss Murray laugh and helped us all down.
She had that perfect balance: fun like a big sister, firm like a momma, and always looking out for us.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡykeRuU5Qd6
56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzsrrcB6fDV
Now Miss Murray, bless her heart, could be a real goofball when she wanted to be.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQZ87gMFJhC
And sometimes... she had jokes.
There was this one time—she kept playing pranks on me.
She had these little toy R2-D2s, you know, the beeping robot from Star Wars.
Well, somehow those things kept moving.
One minute they were on the shelf.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq8LKZDSji7
Next minute, they were across the room.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy2EAQ5eHwl
Then they'd be in my chair.
And every time I asked what was going on, Miss Murray just said,56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhSo7gG7i2K
“Oh, that’s just the poltergeists.”
Like it was nothing!56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvypvCeWSSS
Just casual ghost robots, no big deal.
I was half creeped out, half laughing—and 100% convinced that R2-D2 had joined the paranormal.
To this day, I’m still not sure how she pulled it off.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTKErk33oql
But one thing’s for sure:56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOot95Hjk8s
Miss Murray kept us on our toes—and always smiling.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF8SNW9UqdX
56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz0smFbqviN
I had to leave the school for a while.
Not because I failed or got in trouble—nothing like that.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3fxo1vz5Hd
It was because of my pituitary dwarfism.
I was smaller than the other students, and the school staff was worried about me.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡodlyJVX96V
They didn’t want to throw me into first grade, not when they knew I’d stick out and likely get picked on.
So they suggested I retake kindergarten.
Not because I couldn’t handle the work—56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw2c6V0HDQE
but because of my size.
They were trying to protect me, I know that now.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyq425xeWyg
But at the time, it felt like I got held back for something I couldn’t control.
That was one of the first times I realized that being different—really different—was going to come with some extra hurdles.
But God still had me in His hands, even then.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUdudsoFKW6
Even when I didn’t understand it.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOpW0qPCuXM
So I ended up retaking kindergarten anyway—56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU2o1uMeWuI
this time at Pettit Park School in Kokomo.
That move turned out to be a blessing in disguise.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0DZGR82LBE
Because it was then that people really started teaching me about God.
We started going to Four Square Assembly of God,56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdre2D0IWu2
and Grandma began reading me bedtime stories straight from the Bible.
Those weren’t just stories to me.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJEVWhQWyiK
They were adventures.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHnnLmlukep
Heroes and battles, miracles and mercy—56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEknG5rAJ3o
and in every one of them, God was there.
That summer, I gave my life to Jesus.
I was baptized in a swimming pool, since our church didn’t have a baptismal.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZnfAfItVHO
Didn’t matter—water’s water when the Spirit moves.
I went down a little boy,56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyVLmY4Tzg7
and came up with something new—56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWd11M3SDAb
a heart learning to follow Jesus.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ72fnyg9xZc
56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT9EGPecQxY
