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,23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCw6e1PP1zu
“Do you still know what congeniality means?”23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO43tWvzY7f
And I said, “No.”23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnKX4uViLk8
She laughed and told me we were watching the Miss America pageant when I was two, and I asked her,23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu8uuKLIS4W
“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,23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaX2VBe1pe9
“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,23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdPL2gDH1JG
“Bud, it ain’t bird poop. It’s snow.”
I looked him dead in the eye and said,23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCRFMEKINlA
“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,23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRerdAOr2O1
“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:23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnImNmwS3Pe
When I was four, I ran away from home.
Not because I wanted to see the world or anything fancy like that.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8hwjk8a2xE
Nope.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmHwqw7vzYZ
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,23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ3TiLIivDM
“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.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYPrQRR6hxO
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.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz5XCUHXuyP
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,23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡozytlDkvBV
“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.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOJD1aJ7yY6
But she wasn’t just some authority figure with a clipboard and a whistle.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpqB8sw2eaU
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,23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMG8z1ApXUa
“Alright, kids—you gotta get off.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMRlPl7Wgp1
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.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnGT0047DOS
23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiXP69OZ96o
Now Miss Murray, bless her heart, could be a real goofball when she wanted to be.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzjzoeHwANy
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.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLRHvZmGe4w
Next minute, they were across the room.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ05LQQVSfG
Then they'd be in my chair.
And every time I asked what was going on, Miss Murray just said,23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb4j6K5YdmA
“Oh, that’s just the poltergeists.”
Like it was nothing!23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpz8RBR6EEp
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.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuf8kaUhlf6
But one thing’s for sure:23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlKE7uzvhsu
Miss Murray kept us on our toes—and always smiling.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3KOSaNowQ9
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I had to leave the school for a while.
Not because I failed or got in trouble—nothing like that.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnlMLrupST8
It was because of my pituitary dwarfism.
I was smaller than the other students, and the school staff was worried about me.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7BRqeBXajU
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—23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcKY0PQM0g7
but because of my size.
They were trying to protect me, I know that now.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq4WpnOhMmk
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.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz9bhk7ovUr
Even when I didn’t understand it.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXOQ97pNt2i
So I ended up retaking kindergarten anyway—23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUuK9nLilRB
this time at Pettit Park School in Kokomo.
That move turned out to be a blessing in disguise.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnhpdwBQwK9
Because it was then that people really started teaching me about God.
We started going to Four Square Assembly of God,23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡML7S0enjz8
and Grandma began reading me bedtime stories straight from the Bible.
Those weren’t just stories to me.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDNMCgjIrgO
They were adventures.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbU7hTTDNPW
Heroes and battles, miracles and mercy—23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCNiUJAYNPH
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.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsCazsFQyUD
Didn’t matter—water’s water when the Spirit moves.
I went down a little boy,23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP9SUMQFJQ9
and came up with something new—23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAYPhUP2bs1
a heart learning to follow Jesus.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡghqoBrVL4K
23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOkODYvpPih
