I'M NOT IN PENNSYLVANIA ANYMORE!

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17)

I’m thinking of that line from the film “The Wizard of Oz”:  “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore!”  Yesterday it was very clear to me that I was not in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania anymore!

Tuesday is my day off.  Sometimes my day off becomes more of a “day on”!  I had originally just planned to work at my office and catch up with “church office stuff” on Tuesday, but upon arriving home, I noticed that the bushes and hedges around my Harrison Street church-owned residence were absolutely overgrown.  Usually I trim them twice a year: in early June and in early October, just like clockwork.  This year I trimmed them in late May.  I’ve NEVER seen the bushes and hedges grow back SO quickly.  It’s got to be ALL the rain and all the warm weather!

The worst part of the trimming is getting all the “equipment” out of the house and later back into the house.  I have a moderate-sized wooden stepladder and a HUGE wooden stepladder.  I’m not exactly George Reeves (“Superman”) and lugging that stuff out and EVERYTHING I have to lug out: tarps, rake, push broom, electric trimmer, extension cord, “outside” trash bags, etc. is a pain.  

I am fortunate that I can dump the yard waste on the periphery of our South Street church property.  For you who know Framingham, I dump it in the wooded area at the extreme northeast corner of the church property which borders the Chicken Bone Restaurant’s fence and dumpsters.  I dumped one load and came back with another.  When I arrived back with the second load, what to my wondering eyes did appear, but an open landscaping/construction trailer and it’s contents which had been left on the church property!  Specifically, it had been left in the dirt/gravel overflow lot, near where I was dumping the yard waste.  On the trailer were empty containers of blacktop sealer and all kinds of junk.  There was no license plate on the trailer.

I wondered: was this left by some crew who was coming back to get it?  Was it just dumped there permanently?  Parked near the church on Taylor Street was a red pickup truck with a trailer hitch.  The “Lt. Columbo” part of me started kicking in.  On the truck was an Illinois TEMPORARY plate.  About five minutes later, a tattooed Hispanic male came walking down Taylor Street to the truck.  I asked him if the trailer was his.  He said it was not.  I asked if he left it there.  He said he had, but that it had been there all day.  I immediately told him I’d been at the church property less than an hour earlier and it wasn’t there.  He then told me it belongs to another guy who is coming to get it.

He claimed he had no idea our church owned that dirt lot.  I hear that a lot.  Actually it DOES look like a separate lot from the church’s.  I frequently place flyers on cars who park there explaining the ownership and parking policy.  I asked him to move the trailer anyway.  He began whining about not knowing where to put it.  He then whined that the real owner of the trailer will arrive to pick it up by late afternoon.

The worst part is, he pulled what MANY people pull:  the “you’re a Christian so you have to allow me to use your property” thing.  Actually, he said, “You’re RELIGIOUS.  You’re a MAN OF GOD.  You should understand.”  I didn’t raise my voice  (at one time I would have but I’ve learned that only makes matters worse) but I did tell him strongly that I reject that argument and that the fact that I’m a Christian and the property belongs to a church doesn’t mean anybody can leave anything they want in the parking lot!

He pleasantly told me he understood and that it would definitely be gone in a couple of hours.  I have not been back to the building since then.  Will I find that trailer on the church property today?  I hope not!

Rita “Daisy” Orcutt who ran “Daisy’s Discoveries” consignment shop in downtown Framingham for years used to say, “Anything can and will happen in downtown Framingham and usually does!”

Ain’t it the truth!