—Another Grandpa Story! DFO882 25 MARCH 1979

—To Davidito when he was sick.

1. SON, GOD BLESS YOU. I LOVE YOU & I'M VERY SORRY TO HEAR YOU ARE SICK today on Sunday, March the 25th‚ 1979, & although I'm half asleep, Mama wanted me to make you a tape—a tape about the times when I've been sick. Now, I don't remember for some reason, but when I was born, they said I was sick with the flu—that's a very bad cold & fever. My Mommy had it when she bore me & she was very sick, too.

2. THAT WAS WHEN I WAS A LITTLE WEE TINY BABY, like Techi. Thank God she's not sick! She is very healthy & wealthy & wise & hungry a lot of the time. She keeps nursing Mama & she is getting along fine & looks more beautiful every day & misses her big brother & her big sister—you & Davida. Thank You, Jesus! But you can bring Davida over some day to see her, OK? When are you going to bring Davida to see her?

3. YOU SHOULD COME SOON SO SHE CAN SEE HER WHEN SHE IS SO TINY because she is going to grow so fast, she will be a big girl before you know it—when you get over your cold, so you don't give it to poor Techi. We don't want her to catch cold, too. Yes, when I was born I was very sick, because I was born in the middle of this big flu epidemic. Flu epidemic means a big sickness that lots & lots of people had everywhere—all over the whole world after World War I. It was called the Spanish Influenza Epidemic. A lot of big words, huh! Spanish Influenza Epidemic.

4. IT WAS SUCH A BIG SICKNESS ALL OVER THE WHOLE WORLD & so many people had it that four million people died of the Spanish Flu! But we prayed real hard & Jesus healed Grandma & me & we got all well & we weren't sick anymore for awhile. And so I'm very thankful to be here.

5. I WAS A BIG BABY. I WAS 11 POUNDS & pretty husky & pretty fat, & my Mama, you remember, had lots of milk. She just got the bed all wet because she had so much milk, & I drank lots of milk to make me big & strong & give me nice big muscles, & I grew & grew—a little boy like you. Well, I don't really remember many sicknesses, all my sicknesses. I told you about a lot of my accidents.

6. MAMA WANTS ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT MY SICKNESSES. (Gives a big yawn.) Ahhh! My main sickness right now is that I'm sleepy. Well, the next thing which I remember about the next one is, I think when I was about four or five & we were in Santa Cruz, California in this big old wooden house with a big porch. I got sick with.....Well, at first they thought it was the measles.

7. IN THOSE DAYS WHEN YOU GOT REAL BAD SICK WITH SOMETHING THAT WAS CATCHING, something somebody else could catch, they quarantined you. They wouldn't let you out of the house & associate with other people for fear they would catch it too. And they would put a great big sign on your front door with a big red "X" saying "QUARANTINED". That doesn't mean guaranteed, that's quarantined, meaning "You have to stay away from everybody so you don't spread your sickness!"

8. THEY TOLD MY MOMMY, "NOW YOU ARE EITHER GOING TO HAVE TO STAY IN THE HOUSE ALL THE TIME with him when he is sick, or you are going to have to stay out of the house." And my Mommy was preaching at the church every night, so she couldn't stay in the house with me all the time, so, like your Mommy, she had to go away sometimes, so she had to stay out of the house so she could preach to the people about Jesus every night.

9. BUT SHE WOULD COME TO THE PORCH—just to the steps—& she would call me & talk to me trough the door—about 15 or 20 feet away. But she left a nurse with us like you have a good nurse, Sara, that took care of us & cooked for us & read to me‚ & I was pretty happy.

10. I WASN'T REAL REAL SICK ENOUGH TO FEEL TOO BAD, really‚ except I broke out in a whole lot of little red bumps all over that itched. There were little red bumps all over me—all over my face, my ears & my neck & my tummy & my arms & my legs & my feet & my hands & everywhere! I was all over little red bumps, & I looked like a porcupine!—Or like a redspeckled fish!

11. I WAS SO BUMPY ALL OVER! AND THEY ITCHED & ITCHED & I wanted to scratch, but you didn't dare scratch. So, it finally turned out to be the chickenpox! Thank God it wasn't smallpox, because that is pretty bad! If you have smallpox, you know‚ that can be serious. The reason they call it smallpox is because after the little bumps are gone they leave little holes or indentations called "pox".

12. YOU GET ALL POCKED OR MARKED WITH LITTLE HOLES all over you where all the bumps were & you kind of look like a sieve—all full of holes!—Little holes all over. With chickenpox, you don't have quite so many holes. But mine left a few holes. I've still got a few little holes left here & there, but not very many; mostly only where I scratched the worst! Someday I'll show you the little holes. I think I've still got some on my face somewhere.

13. WELL‚ YOU LOOK ME OVER THE NEXT TIME YOU SEE ME, SON‚ & MAYBE YOU CAN FIND A FEW LITTLE HOLES that the chickenpox made. Pox. And I got pocked with pockmarks. That's what pock means, it is a little tiny hole. No‚ they don't have smallpox anymore nowadays. They kind of got rid of it. I guess a lot of people prayed it away & the Devil got tired of giving it to people because they didn't die of it anymore or something.

14. THEY'VE GOT A REWARD OUT NOW THAT they give, a thousand dollar reward to report a case of smallpox, because they haven't had one in the whole world for two or three years, something like that. Anyhow, I didn't have smallpox, because that really leaves you full of holes, but chickenpox just leaves a few holes. But I remember one thing when I was so sick: For awhile I had a high fever.

15. WITH MOST DISEASES YOU HAVE FEVER SOMETIMES, WHEN YOUR SKIN GETS HOT, YOU KNOW, & YOU GET HOT. You feel very hot, but you mustn't get cold, because it is dangerous if you have got a fever & you get real hot. It's very dangerous. You mustn't get cold. You must cover up, even if you are hot. Just keep covered up really good.

16. AND EVEN IF YOU SWEAT A LOT, THAT'S GOOD FOR YOU‚ because it sweats the poison out & sweats the disease out of your system & makes you feel better. And that is where they got the expression, "Sweat it out". You just sweat it out, see? The hotter you get & the more you sweat, the better you sweat it out of your system & get rid of it, because the fever is to burn up the germs & burn up the poisons & try to burn it up so that the disease will die.

17. OF COURSE, IF THE FEVER GETS TOO HOT & TOO HIGH, IT WILL BURN YOU UP so you die, but I don't think that is going to happen to you. It didn't happen to me. I had lots of fevers when I was young, & you have a fever right now, & Mommy's had fevers & she had a fever when she was in the hospital, & we have all had lots of fevers & never died, so don't worry about it.

18. YOU JUST GET REAL HOT & YOU SWEAT & THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU ARE COLD‚ you are shivering & shaking & you are chilly & you want to be buried under a mountain of covers because you are so cold, but that's why it is best to stay real warm & don't get cold when you have a fever, because you need to get real warm & get so hot that the germs & the poisons all burn up!

19. BUT SOMETIMES WHEN YOU GET HOT LIKE THAT, YOUR HEAD FEELS FUNNY & YOU GET KIND OF WHOOZIE, DREAMY, like you are in a dream, & you think funny things & you see things, & that's called "delirious". You have a delirium. That means not that you are deliriously happy, but you are deliriously sick, & to be delirious means that you are seeing things & having funny dreams, & sometimes you will even talk funny to people & everything.

20. YOU WILL THINK YOU ARE SOMEWHERE ELSE OR YOU WILL THINK YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING ELSE entirely & you are not even where you are, & it's just like living in a dreamland, you are off somewhere else in your dreams somewhere. And I guess the Lord lets that happen so that even though you are so very, very sick, you won't feel too bad because you feel kind of light & funny & giddy & you say funny things & you feel funny & you really get quite happy when you are delirious!

21. YOU REALLY, IN A WAY, ARE DELIRIOUSLY HAPPY, & you see funny things. I remember when my nurse was leading me by the hand to the bathroom—I can remember it yet!—We had to go out on the back porch to get to the bathroom. As we walked across the back porch, there was a shadow of some leaves on the wall of the porch. The sun was coming through the leaves of the tree out in the backyard & the shadow fell right on the wall, & do you know what the shadow was?

22. WELL, IT WAS TO ME ANYHOW, WHEN I WAS DELIRIOUS & I WAS SICK.—I said, "Oh, look there! Those little men are going up & down on the elevator!" And they were! There were little men going up & down on the elevator on the wall, but she wouldn't believe me. She said, "Come on. You've got to go to the toilet!" I said, "Look! I want to watch the little men going up & down on the elevator!"—Because the shadow of the little men with the elevator was on the wall!—Just leaves of trees!

23. SHE WOULDN'T BELIEVE ME & WOULDN'T LET ME STAY THERE & watch the little men go up & down on the elevator. She dragged me off to the toilet & I cried because it made me so mad because I couldn't stay & watch them! But probably it's better, because the porch was kind of cold & it wasn't good for me to stay out there anyhow. So, by & by I got well again & Mommy & Daddy could come back in the house‚ but all that time while I was sick they'd had to stay out & we had to stay in.

24. OH, MY BROTHER & SISTER WERE SO MAD AT ME because they couldn't leave the house! The nurse couldn't leave the house & my brother & sister couldn't leave the house & I couldn't leave the house & nobody could come in the house from anywhere. They couldn't come in the front door. They couldn't come in the back door, they weren't even allowed to climb through a window or anything—to come in the house at all!

25. WE HAD TO STAY IN THERE ALL BY OURSELVES. And then my brother & sister‚ they just spent all their time reading books, because there wasn't any radio or television then. All we had was books. We just read books & we missed a lot of school. We missed two whole weeks of school because we were quarantined for two whole weeks! Sometimes, if you had some real bad sickness like German measles or something, they quarantined you for a month!—Or diphtheria. Thank God I never had that!

26. I THINK I HAD THE GERMAN MEASLES, BUT I HAD THAT LATER. (Mama: Whooping cough?) Whooping cough! Oh boy! I think they quarantined you for about a month or two. For all those childhood diseases they used to make you stay in the house & you couldn't go to school, you couldn't go out & play with other kids because they might catch it from you. And your Daddy, if he worked, he couldn't stay in the house, he had to stay somewhere else.

27. USUALLY MAMA STAYED HOME & TOOK CARE OF THE SICK CHILDREN & they couldn't go out of the house. People had to bring them their groceries. They would bring us our groceries & they would set them on the front porch & then they would walk way back to the sidewalk for fear they might catch it‚ & then the nurse would come out & pick up the groceries & carry them into the house.—Because those were really catchin' diseases, you could catch them pretty easy.

28. THEY DON'T HAVE QUITE SO MUCH of those anymore because people are more careful & more clean & they wash better & they clean their clothes better & they watch it better. But you remember when you had whooping cough, there were lots of kids in Malta that had whooping cough, too. That's where you got it. You caught it from some child probably down at the playground.

29. OH NO‚ YOU CAUGHT IT FROM SWITZERLAND DIDN'T YOU, from some of the other little kids! Davida got it first, that's right. She got it in Switzerland from those other kids & then she came down with it & brought it to you & you caught it, see? That's how you do it, you catch it by getting around somebody that's got it, & that's why they quarantined you when I was little.

30. SO THAT'S ABOUT WHEN I WAS SICK WITH CHICKENPOX & quarantined for two whole weeks. We couldn't see our Mommy & Daddy except for outside, when they stood out on the sidewalk outside the porch while we would talk to them through the window or through the door & wave at them. So see, other mommies & daddies have to be away some times too, not only yours.

31. BUT YOU'VE GOT A GOOD MOMMY & DADDY IN ALFRED & SARA. You've got Daddy Alfred & Mama Sara & you've got Mama Jewel & Mama Claire there. You've got lots of Mamas & Daddies, all kinds of Mamas & Daddies. So why should you worry about just one little Daddy & one little Mama being away? Anyway, praise the Lord, thank You, Jesus! Let's see if I can remember when I was sick later. Oh yes,

32. I CAN REMEMBER WHEN I WAS SICK IN OKLAHOMA WHEN I WAS THREE in a big two-story white house there with a great big green lawn where I had my dog, Ring, that I told you about. Did I tell you about my dog Ring that used to jump the fence & suck the eggs in the Convent chicken garden next door? Well, I was real sick when I was there for awhile.

33. EVEN MY DADDY WAS SICK, he got the pink-eye in both eyes & he had sore eyes‚ & his eyes all ran puss & matter, & when he would wake up in the morning both his eyes would be stuck shut, he couldn't even open them, & my Mama used to have to wash them both with warm water to get them unstuck! It was just like they were glued together in the morning, because they had a lot of pink-eye in Oklahoma & Texas & places like that, I don't know why, but the kids were always getting pink-eye in Arizona, too.

34. YOUR ONE EYE GETS REAL PINK & ALL RED & PINK & SWOLLEN. I had it once when I was teaching school in California & I wore a black patch over my eye‚ & all the kids just loved that because I looked like a pirate, & one of the boys made me promise to give it to him after my eye was well because he wanted to wear it for Halloween & be a pirate. I wore a rubber band around my head & a big black patch hanging over my eye, because I had pink eye. It's real sore & real itchy & it kind of aches.

35. I HAD SOMETHING ELSE THERE, I'VE FORGOTTEN WHAT, MAYBE THE FLU OR SOMETHING. I was sick & I had to stay home in bed. And I remember that there was one nice thing about staying home in bed: It was that my Mommy always fixed me cream caramel‚ a nice custard pudding, that I liked very much. It had a little sort of hard honey candy in the bottom & you ate it all the way to the bottom to get the candy.

36. YOU HAD TO EAT THE CUSTARD FIRST, & you couldn't get to the candy in the bottom until you ate the custard first, & that was your reward for eating the custard. Of course I liked the custard too, but the candy in the bottom, it was good, you know, real brown sugar or honey candy, good candy‚ not bad candy!

37. YES, THERE ARE SOME GOOD CANDIES MADE OUT OF HONEY & BROWN SUGAR & raw sugar & things like that, & Path makes good custards & desserts, & maybe she could make you one like that while you are sick. So, that was one of the rewards of being sick, I guess. One thing was, that I didn't have to go to school & kindergarten. (Mama: You didn't like school?) But oh my!

38. NO, I DIDN'T LIKE SCHOOL BECAUSE THERE WERE SO MANY ROUGH KIDS & BAD BOYS & they'd tease me & were mean to me & beat me up because I was a Christian & I was a preacher's kid & I was a good little boy & they were all bad little boys, so they didn't like good boys. So, I didn't like going to school. I liked reading the books & I liked studying & I liked the pretty little girls, but I didn't like the boys...

39. I LIKED THE PRETTY LITTLE GIRLS & I USED TO CARRY THEIR BOOKS, & then the bad boys would tease me & want to fight with me, so I would fight. I would get so mad at them! They would start hitting me & I would hit them back, but I was smaller than they were, so I got the worst of it. I'll never forget, I got a real bad black eye once, & I was ashamed to go home, so when I went home I hid up in the tree in our yard until after dark, & my Mother came calling & calling me & wondering where I was.

40. SHE WAS CALLING US FOR SUPPER & I WAS HIDING UP IN THE TREE BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO LET HER KNOW THAT I HAD BEEN IN A FIGHT & got a black eye! She was very worried about me because she didn't know where I was, & they were having supper & I was late for supper & she kept calling & calling. Finally I heard her crying & I couldn't stand that, so I slid down the tree & came in & she was so happy. She didn't worry about my black eye or my being in a fight, because she was so happy I came home.

41. THAT WAS ABOUT WHEN I WAS FOUR OR FIVE TOO, & WENT TO SCHOOL IN HARLAN‚ KENTUCKY. That's where that happened, where they had a lot of tough, rough boys‚ & they had a lot of bootleggers & feuders & there were wars going on between the clans all the time & they were shooting each other & they shot a sheriff just about every month & had to get a new sheriff every month because the old one kept getting shot all the time & all the people were shooting each other!

42. IT WAS A TERRIBLE PLACE TO LIVE! It was real bad. It was way back up in the hills of Kentucky. They didn't have a road in there yet when we went in‚ they were just beginning to build a road into the little town‚ it was so rough & so bad. A bunch of wicked people. And oh my! The school was terrible! And the boys were very bad.—But some got saved! PTL!

43. BUT NOT ALL PLACES ARE LIKE THAT, NOT ALL SCHOOLS ARE SO BAD. In some places the boys are better. I don't know where‚ though, because I never found one like that. In all the schools I ever went to there were bad boys who gave me a lot of trouble. (Mama: In the United States?) Yes‚ in the United States of America where violence is their creed & their belief & their religion. They believe in violence.

44. THEY BELIEVE IN KILLING & THEY BELIEVE IN HURTING EACH OTHER & fighting & doing all kinds of bad things in the United States. Thank God you don't have to go to school! Thank God you don't have to live in a place where all those bad people are that hurt & fight & kill & shoot each other! But I'll finish telling you about the gangsters some other time. I'm telling you about the times that I was sick now.

45. WELL, I DON'T REMEMBER BEING SICK VERY MUCH, thank the Lord, but the worst part about it when I was a little boy was‚ when you got sick they always gave you castor oil! You can be thankful you don't have to take castor oil, because it tasted horrible & smelled worse & it made you even sicker! It made you go BM a whole lot, but they thought they had to give that to you to clean you out whenever you were sick.

46. CASTOR OIL WAS THE REMEDY FOR EVERYTHING! No matter what you had, they gave you castor oil, & that was supposed to be the cure-all that would kill anything, & it almost killed you! Oh, it was horrible! And they also gave us cod-liver oil by the spoonful, & I didn't like that either. I thought it smelled bad & tasted terrible!

47. BUT YOU LIKE COD-LIVER OIL‚ you like those vitamin capsules & everything. I'm glad you do, because it is good for you. But I guess they didn't make it so good in those days. They poured it out of a bottle into a spoon & you had to drink the whole thing. Yuck! It was horrible! Smelled terrible & tasted terrible & made me sick!

48. SO YOU CAN BE REAL THANKFUL THAT SARA DOESN'T MAKE YOU TAKE SOME AWFUL TASTING MEDICINE! Ohhhh, if you had a cough they gave you this cough syrup, & sometimes it tasted real good, it tasted sweet like honey & it was real thick, usually black, with molasses, & it stuck in your throat & it was a big glumpy glob as it went down, & it was supposed to keep you from coughing.

49. I GUESS IT WS SUPPOSED TO KEEP YOU FROM COUGHING BY NEARLY CHOKING YOU TO DEATH because it was so hard to swallow! You had to take a great big tablespoonful, a whole tablespoonful of this black syrup, cough syrup, & some of it tasted terrible! Ewww! It was awful! You can be so thankful you don't have to take medicine & cough syrup & castor oil. You do take cod liver oil—but you like it.

50. WE HAD TO TAKE A LOT OF PILLS SOMETIMES WHEN I WAS A KID. The doctor would make you swallow a big pill, & it was hard for me to swallow pills. But anyway, I lived through all the medicines & the pills & the cough syrup & the castor oil & the cod liver oil & I made it anyhow, so don't worry. You will probably make it anyway & you will probably get better soon, because we believe in Jesus & Jesus made us, so He can fix us & He can heal us & we will get all well again!

51. EVERY TIME I GOT REAL SICK MY MOMMY & DADDY PRAYED FOR US & LAID HANDS ON US & asked Jesus to heal us & claimed Scriptures, & every time we got well again!—Every single time! There wasn't one time we didn't get well again, because if there had ever been any time that we didn't get well again, I would still be sick, wouldn't I?—Or I would be dead, huh?! So that just proves & shows you that I got well every single time they prayed for me.

52. EVERY TIME I WAS SICK I GOT WELL AGAIN because Jesus healed us. We always got well again. One time my brother was real sick in bed with a high fever & had the flu or something. It was going around again. It seemed like they had flu about every year. Nowadays they don't have flu every year. Well‚ they have it, but they name it something different every year, because people don't like to have the same old thing with the same old name every year, so they've got to have a new name.

53. SO THEY NAME IT FANCY NAMES‚ & some from different countries: Chinese Flu, Spanish flu, Hog Flu, Swine Flu & others. They always like to give it a different name. It's the same old thing, really, but people don't want to be bored with having the same old thing every year, so they give it a new name every year so they can figure they had something different‚ & they can go around & say, "I have so-&-so. I had such–&-such a flu. I had such–&-such a fever." Something new, like a new car or something.

54. WELL, ANYHOW, MY BROTHER WAS REAL SICK & IN BED & MY MOTHER PRAYED FOR HIM. Then‚ a little while later when she was preparing for church she heard this real weak sickly voice singing‚ of all things, when he was deathly sick & almost ready to die, he was so sick! So she rushed in to the bedroom & she found him sitting up on the edge of his bed, putting his clothes on, & she said, "Oh Hjalmer!"

55. HJALMER—THAT WAS HIS NAME‚ ISN'T THAT A FUNNY NAME? Hjalmer! You never heard of a name like that before, did you? Because that is a Swedish name. That is my Daddy's name. Your Granddaddy's name was Hjalmer, too. Isn't that funny? Only in Swedish you say Yalmer, Yalmer. He was named after a famous Swedish poet named Hjalmer Hjalmerson, Yalmer Yalmerson. We called him Hjalmer because you spell it funny, too: H-J-A-L-M-E-R. H-J-A-L-M-E-R, & so you don't know whether to say Halmer or Jalmer or Yalmer or what! So anyhow‚ everybody in the family pronounced it Jalmer. We Americanised it.

56. SHE RUSHED IN & SAID, "HJALMER! What are you doing getting out of bed? You are very sick! You get right back in that bed quickly‚ or you might get so sick‚ you might die!" He said, "What do you mean, mother? You just came in here & prayed for me to get well & I'm getting up & acting on my faith that Jesus is healing me." He said‚ "Please don't bother me! I'm having a hard enough time fighting the Devil without fighting you‚ too!"

57. AND SURE ENOUGH, HE GOT UP & HE GOT DRESSED & HE GOT WELL! Jesus healed him & he was all better‚ & his fever left him & he got all well again because he fought the devil. Sometimes when you are sick you even have to fight your friends because they will hardly let you get well, because sometimes they think you are too sick & they are afraid for you to do this or do that‚ & you have to really trust the Lord.

58. THANK GOD YOU'VE GOT GOOD FRIENDS & A GOOD MOMMY & POPPY & Alfred & Sara & others that trust the Lord with you & know that you are going to get well again. Remember, no matter how sick you are, Jesus will always heal you & make you well again. So praise the Lord! Of course, you never know how Jesus might make you well or how He might heal you or how He might answer prayer.

59. ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS AN OLD MAN & HE WAS VERY SICK. He was very, very sick, he had been sick a long time‚ & he was an invalid. An invalid means somebody that is sick all the time & has to stay in bed or in their room most of the time. He couldn't get up & walk around much, he was very sick. Well, one day he told everybody very happily some good news!: He said that the Lord had told him that on a certain day he was going to be healed!

60. HE TOLD EVERYBODY, "JESUS TOLD ME I'M GOING TO BE HEALED ON THAT DAY!" And sure enough, he was healed on that day! Do you know how?—He died & he went to be with Jesus! He died, so he got rid of this old body & all its diseases & troubles & he left it behind & he went with his new body to be with Jesus in Heaven! So that's how he was healed! See?

61. THAT'S THE BEST HEALING OF ALL! When you die, that's the final healing! Then you don't have any more diseases & you are not sick anymore, you don't hurt anymore, you don't have anymore trouble. You go to be with the Lord & all of our Family & friends that have gone on before. That's one good way to get healed. That's permanent healing, when you die.

62. YOU GET RID OF THIS BODY & ALL OF ITS SICKNESSES & you go to be with Jesus! That way, you are never sick again. Isn't that wonderful? Death is the best healing of all, because that is the final healing, where the old body finally dies or gets killed or whatever, & you get rid of it & you are free!

63. THEN YOU CAN FLY AROUND OR SHOOT UP TO THE STARS & up to Heaven & be with Jesus, & you don't have to be sick anymore! You don't have to hurt anymore & you can't get killed anymore, & never anymore can anybody hurt you, your enemies can't bother you anymore & nobody can hurt you anymore because you are in your spiritual body, your new model!

64. YOU KNOW ALL THOSE CARS YOU HAVE: You have some old-fashioned models & then you have some new models & some old models. There are old Fords & new Fords. And there are old Chevys & new Chevys & old Fiats & new Fiats & old Mercedes & new Mercedes—all different styles, aren't there? Huh?! And there are old Peugeots with the camel-back hump & there are new Peugeots, but different, right?

65. AND THE NEW ONES ALWAYS LOOK BETTER, DON'T THEY? Don't the new ones always look better & prettier & shinier & nice & new & nothing is wrong with them! No car troubles, all nice & new!

66. THAT'S WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO US ONE OF THESE DAYS WHEN JESUS FINALLY HEALS US OF THIS OLD BODY & it goes completely so we can get a new spiritual model. One of these days, Daddy is going to die & get a new body, a new model, lots better & prettier & faster than the old model! And one of these days everyone of us are going to die & get rid of the old model & get a new model!

67. WE ARE GOING TO BE WITH JESUS IN OUR NEW MODEL that's nice & clean & pretty & beautiful & new & so fast! Whhhhooooooo! Talk about power! We can fly through the air & the sky & up through the clouds & all the way to the stars & the moon, & we can fly with not just the speed of light, which is too slow, because that only travels 186,000 miles a second, & that's not fast enough to get around through a big universe that's so big!

68. SO WE HAVE TO TRAVEL WITH THE SPEED OF THOUGHT! We'll go Whissssssssk! And you're there! Just as quick as you can think it, you have thunk it & you'll be there, plunk it! Just like that! And you just think it & when you have thunk it you will plunk it! You got it? You think it, then you have thunk it, then you plunk it & you are there!—That's just how fast you can fly when you get your new model! The old-model Davidito won't be much good anymore, because he needs a new model, & then he'll fly to be with Jesus, & the old model bottle won't be much good anymore. See?—

69. YOU'VE GOT A NEWER MODEL SISTER RIGHT NOW. She's pretty new, isn't she? Only two years old! Davida is a pretty new model, pretty little girl & all nice & new & nothing is wrong with her & nice & shiney! Oh, she's three now! That's right! Oh, my goodness, she is getting old! She's getting old. Three years old, a model three years old! Well, when it comes to cars, that's pretty old, but when it comes to people, that's not very old.

70. YOU ARE STILL PRETTY NEW WHEN YOU ARE THREE OR FOUR OR FIVE OR SIX, because people live 70, 80, 90, 100 years! But cars, they only live about four or five or six, 10 years, 10 or 15 years are almost the most, except some of those old old antique models you have seen & that people took real good care of & didn't drive recklessly & carelessly & took very good care of them.

71. THEY WERE GOOD DRIVERS & THEY DROVE SLOWLY & CAREFULLY & PRAYERFULLY, so they still have those nice big old old old old cars that are so funny & pretty, like Daddy, see? I took good care of my old model & I am still here, many years later. I look kind of funny & old‚ I'm an old–fashioned model, but I'm still here! I'm an antique, like those antique cars.

72. ANTIQUES ARE PRETTY VALUABLE! They are even more valuable than the new cars, aren't they? So see? I'm an antique model, & although I am very old, I'm very valuable because I'm an antique, even though I'm not new. I'm very very old & I'm very rare. You don't see a lot of antiques on the road, do you? You don't see near as many old models as you see new ones, do you?

73. THE OLD ONES ARE KIND OF RARE & THEY ARE KIND OF PRECIOUS & they are sort of very very well thought of. You don't see near as many old men running around as little kids do you? All the little kids are new models & they are brand new, but there are lots of them & nobody thinks too much about so many little kids. But when you see an old old man, you look at him & wonder & think "Oh my! He's lived a long time! Look how ancient he is! What an antique he is!

74. "HE MUST BE VERY PRECIOUS & VERY PRICELESS because he is so old!"—Just like the antique cars, see? So Daddy is an old antique model because I'm so old, but I took good care of myself, & although I had a lot of sicknesses & diseases & accidents, Jesus kept me, & we always prayed & Jesus always healed us & repaired us & fixed us no matter what happened, & I am still here today, so many years later, one of those precious, priceless, very rare old antiques!

75. SO YOU'D BETTER TAKE GOOD CARE OF ME so you can show that you have got an old antique at your house, a real old model, very ancient, & there aren't very many of us around! You look around, you don't see very many antiques like Daddy do you? There aren't too many of us around, just a few‚ because

76. A LOT OF THE YOUNGER VEHICLES—the younger models—get smashed up or they get sick & die or they have accidents & something happens & they don't take care of themselves or they don't love Jesus or trust Jesus & get healed. Or maybe they drive recklessly & get killed & die young before they get to be an old antique.

77. BUT IF YOU TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOUR BODY, the model you have now that's still all nice & new (at five years old you're still new, if you are a human being) you may last a long time. Cars are only new for about one or two years.

78. NOW, TECHI, YOUR BABY SISTER‚ IS BRAND NEW‚ ISN'T SHE? She is only a week old! But cars, they get old real fast, & if a car lasts 10 years, it is doing pretty good. If it lasts 15‚ it is almost getting to be an antique‚ & if it lasts 20, 30, 40, 50, ahhhhh, my, it is really a priceless, rare, old antique then, for sure! But most cars wind up on the scrap pile, the junk pile & the junk yard by the time they are only seven, eight, ten years old, whereas

79. PEOPLE, LIKE YOU & ME, ARE STILL ALMOST BRAND NEW AT THAT AGE! Techi is very brand new! She hasn't even got one little scratch on her paint at all, not even one little scratch on her skin, she is so brand new! She doesn't have one little one! She is all brand new, perfectly whole, & completely all there & all new! Everything is tickin' just fine & her machinery runs real good because she is such a new model!

80. HER MOMMY IS SITTING OVER THERE RIGHT NOW NURSING HER & Techi is sucking at Mama's breast. Mommy is like the gas station, see, where you have to drive your car to have them put gas in so it can go. About every three or four hours, Techi has got to come to the gas station & Mommy puts the nozzle of the pump into her mouth & she tanks up again on more milk. She runs on milk!-Isn't that funny?

81. CARS RUN ON GASOLINE & PEOPLE RUN ON MILK! Babies run on milk. Isn't that funny? And later, when they get to be as old as you & Davida, they run on food which you stuff through a hole in your face! Isn't that funny? Instead of putting a nozzle in a gas tank & running gasoline into you that burns a fire inside of you, you stuff food through a hole in your face, & it goes down inside of you & it burns up & gives you energy & makes you be able to run & jump & play & be strong & carry things!

82. DEAR LITTLE TECHI IS TANKING UP AT MAMA'S GAS STATION, OR MILK STATION‚ I mean. Mama's got two pumps & two nozzles, & if another little baby comes along that needs some milk, why, she could do two at a time, just like most gas stations! They have two pumps, don't they? Huh? Most of them? They have one for high test & one for low test. One for no-knock & one for pure-knock. But Mama's gives the same high test, high quality milk out of both pumps, both nozzles, so Techi runs on milk.

83. WHEN YOU ARE A BRAND BRAND BRAND BRAND NEW MODEL, YOU RUN ON MILK when you are a person, like you did when you were little. You ran on Mama's milk, too, & every now & then your nurse would drive you into Mama's gas station, milk station, I mean, & put you right in Mama's lane, & then while you were lying in her arms, she stuck the nozzle of her milk pump into your mouth & you sort of pumped away, too. It's funny: People just sort of suck it out, but the car doesn't suck it out—it just runs into the car.

84. TECHI & DAVIDA & YOU & ALL OF YOU CHILDREN ARE ALL VERY NEW MODELS & very new people, & if you are careful & take good care of yourself & don't get sick too much & don't get too many colds like you have got now‚ & if you try to stay warm & keep your sweater on & don't get in a draft & don't go around other people who have colds‚ & if you eat real good & get lots of sleep & be good boys & good girls, then you will last a long time. You will still be a new model for years!

85. GUESS HOW LONG YOU ARE A NEW MODEL WHEN YOU ARE PEOPLE & NOT CARS? Cars are a new model only about a year‚ but people are new models until they are about 20 years old, think of that!—20, 21 years old! They are even still in pretty good shape & fairly new until they are 30! Look at Alfred & Sara: They are still fairly good & pretty new, still in real good shape, aren't they? Huh? They look pretty new, don't they?

86. THEY HAVE HARDLY ANY WRINKLES OR ANY DENTS or any scratches on their paint or any broken fenders. They look pretty good. I'm looking at them right now & I don't see anything wrong with either one of them. They are still in real good shape. 30 years old, think of that! How about that! People are still in good shape when they are 30 years old, because

87. JESUS MADE PEOPLE, & HE REALLY KNOWS HOW TO MAKE LONG-LASTING MACHINES! He is the greatest Mechanic of all! He really created the greatest machine there is‚ & that's the human body! It lasts longer & it's new & in better shape longer than anything man ever made! Man‚ he makes cars & they get old real fast! Boy, do they get old fast! One year & the car's just about had it! There are lots of people who trade in their car every year for another new model! My oh my! If we had to do that with people‚ I would have had to trade you in a long time ago & had a new one‚ like Techi!

88. BUT WE'RE NOT GOING TO TRADE YOU IN EVEN THOUGH WE'VE GOT TECHI, another new model, because you are still in great shape, & you will be in great shape until you are like Alfred & Sara & most of your nurses & teachers & everything, till you are about 30. Even if you are 40 years old, you are still in pretty good shape, not bad at all, really.

89. WHERE DID YOU EVER SEE A CAR THAT WAS 40 YEARS OLD & STILL IN GOOD SHAPE without any scratches or dents or breaks or was still running, huh? I mean, it would be an antique, wouldn't it? A 40-year-old car would be an antique, it would be pretty precious, but people 40 years old are pretty common. There's a lot of them around. You have seen a lot of them, haven't you? Everytime you go to town, don't you see a lot of that kind of people?

90. THEY CALL THEM MIDDLE-AGED PEOPLE. They are not children, they are not young people & they are not teenagers, they are not in their 20's or their 30's either. But when you get to be 40 they call that middle-age‚ because that's about the middle of your life, since most people live to be about 70 or 80, & a lot of people don't even live that long.

91. SO WHEN THEY GET TO BE ABOUT 40 THEY FIGURE THAT'S THE MIDDLE OF YOUR LIFE, half-way between when you were born & when you are 80, when you might probably die. They call that middle-age, when you are in your 40's, & some people say even 50 is middle-aged, but I think you are getting pretty old when you are 50. When you are 60, of course, you really are getting old, & in your 70's you are very old!

92. WHEN YOU ARE IN YOUR 80'S, LIKE YOUR GRANDMA & YOUR GRANDPA were, you are very very very very old! Oh! You're so old! My goodness! You're so old, you really are an antique, & you look it, too! I tell you, you are all full of wrinkles & scratches & bumps & all white hair or no hair, & you are pretty rickety & you creak & you squeak & you don't go very fast & you don't run very well when you get to be that old—70 & 80! Some people are still going pretty good at 60, but they are antiques.

93. SEE HOW MUCH LONGER PEOPLE LAST THAN CARS? People are lots more valuable than all the cars in the world put together!—Because Jesus made people, & only man made cars. God can make better things than man makes. Man makes cars that get old real fast & that hardly last even ten years! They get all scratched & bumped & dented & broken & run down & rusted & real ratty looking when they get that old, & they have to throw them on a junk pile at ten years old!

94. WOULDN'T IT BE TERRIBLE IF I THREW YOU ON A JUNK PILE WHEN YOU WERE TEN YEARS OLD? My goodness! Why, we wouldn't think of throwing you on a junk pile when you are ten years old, because you are still pretty new! You are new for about 20 years! A car is only new about one or two years, but people are new for about 20 years, think of that!

95. GOD MAKES BETTER THINGS THAN MAN RIGHT?—Better than cars! Of course, people get sick once in awhile like you, & they feel bad sometimes, & their motor isn't running very good & their nose may be running too good & maybe their eyes are running bad‚ and they don't feel like having their feet running & they are not feeling very good & they are kind of clanking around like a clunker.

96. MAYBE YOU HAVE TO STAY IN BED, IN YOUR GARAGE FOR AWHILE‚ UNTIL JESUS, YOUR MECHANIC, FIXES YOU UP & gets you going again. So you've got to take it easy, & you mustn't run out of the garage until you are fixed‚ or you might get out & crack up somewhere! So take good care of yourself, Son. Be sure you get lots of rest, eat good food & keep nice & warm & do what Mommy & Sara & Alfred & everybody tell you to do, so that you will get well & strong.

97. JESUS IS A GOOD MECHANIC, BUT IT TAKES HIM A LITTLE BIT OF TIME TO FIX YOU, like every mechanic. You know, when you have got to get your car fixed‚ you have to leave it in the garage usually all day. Sometimes you've got to leave it there for a week while the mechanics work on it. It takes time to fix it if it's very sick.

98. SO WHENEVER YOU ARE SICK IN BED, CHILDREN‚ DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. You night have to stay there a few hours or a few days or maybe even a week while Jesus is fixing you‚ because human beings, people, are lots more complicated to fix than cars‚ & they are much more precious & much better & they last longer, but they are more difficult to repair, too, so sometimes it takes a little while to repair you.

99. YOU HAVE TO STAY IN BED UNTIL YOU FEEL BETTER, UNTIL JESUS ANSWERS PRAYER & fixes you & makes you feel all better, & then you can get up again & go again, as good as new! So take good care of the nice, new model that Jesus has given you, & it will stay new if you take good care of it & you don't give it too many knocks & bumps like Daddy gave himself when young.

100. I'VE GOT LOTS OF SCRATCHES & BRUISES & KNOCKS & BUMPS all over me because I was sometimes a pretty careless driver & a little bit reckless & I didn't take good care of my nice new model & it got banged up pretty bad! That wasn't good, was it? But that way, God banged a lot of sense into my head‚ so that I took better care of it after that. And now I've lasted so many years!

101. FINALLY I SAW HOW FOOLISH IT WAS TO RUN AROUND CRASHING INTO EVERYTHING & banging myself up, & I saw if I was going to do that very long, I wasn't going to last very long, so I stopped it. After the Lord banged a lot of sense into my head, then I stopped banging into things & falling & hurting myself & doing all kinds of crazy things that I used to do.

102. NOW I TRY TO TAKE GOOD CARE OF MYSELF & I don't walk or run too fast & I don't bang into things if I can help it, & I try not to get sick. I try to keep nice & warm & eat good food, get lots of rest & work hard & get lots of exercise, & be kind to other people & loving, so as not to get in any fights where you get hurt, & like cars, get in wrecks & get hurt & get all banged up!

103. IF YOU TAKE GOOD CARE OF THIS NICE NEW MODEL JESUS HAS GIVEN YOU, it will be new for 20, 30 even almost 40 years before it starts really getting old, so you may have it a long time! But probably Jesus will come first before that for you, & give you another brand new model that will last forever & never get old, think of that! The next model He is going to give you—when you trade this one in for your next new model—is going to be so new that it will never ever ever ever ever get old, not the least little bit!

104. IT WILL NEVER GET OLD OR SCRATCHED OR BANGED OR DENTED OR BUMPED or broken or broken down or anything! It is going to last forever & ever & ever & ever, & at the end of one thousand years, or ten thousand years, a hundred thousand years or a million years even, it will still be just as new as ever & run just as good & look just as pretty & work just as good as it ever did‚ & never ever ever get old!

105. TAKE GOOD CARE OF THIS MODEL YOU'VE GOT RIGHT NOW. Try to make it last as long as you can, because you will need it for awhile anyway‚ until you trade it in on your new model & go to Heaven! So God bless you, children. Take good care of yourselves now, & don't get chilled & don't get too tired.

106. I THINK MAYBE, DAVID, YOU GOT TOO TIRED, you stayed up too long. You didn't take your nap‚ & you got over-tired‚ see, & you got chilled probably, maybe in that garden where Davida got wet. Davida got wet & you caught a cold. I don't know how that happened, but anyhow, you have got to take better care of yourself & eat better food, more good food‚ so you will be big & strong & have big muscles.

107. TAKE GOOD CARE OF THIS MODEL & MAKE IT LAST AS LONG AS YOU CAN—if you take good care of it you will be new for a long time. You might still even be new when Jesus comes! Wouldn't that be wonderful? Lord, bless David & Davida & all our children everywhere & keep them safely in Thy care. Help them always to beware of all life's wear & tear, & help them to take good night's sleep & get lots of good exercise.

108. HELP THEM TO WORK HARD & EAT WELL & SLEEP WELL & RUN WELL, but try not to run into anything or fall off things or get hurt. Help them to steer their bodies well, Lord, & cover them & treat them right, so that they don't have any wrecks or crashes or too bad bumps or scratches, or they don't run too long & too late so that they get too tired & get sick, & so they don't get too cold & freeze up & catch cold.

109. HELP THEM TO TAKE MUCH BETTER CARE OF THEMSELVES, of these nice new models they have, so they will keep them new & nice & bright & shiney for as long as possible to show other people Your Love & Your happiness, Lord, & show them the way, the right roads to take to Thy happiness in Heaven‚ & happiness here & now too‚ in our happy Homes here that we are to live in till You come.

110. AND IN THE MILLENNIUM WHEN YOU SET UP YOUR KINGDOM FOR A THOUSAND YEARS we're going to live here in our happy Homes for a long time & never get old! Even somebody that is a part of the world now that is not a Christian but that is left & that we will rule over, even if they are a hundred years old they will still be considered just a little child, because they are going to live so long! So bless & keep us all in Jesus' Name, & help us to stay new models as long as we can, until You come & give us our very new models that will last forever!—In Jesus' Name‚ amen.

111.—ARE YOU TAKING GOOD CARE OF YOUR MODEL, NEW OR OLD? Please do, so you can drive it around for Jesus to help others & give them lifts as long as you can!—Amen? Hallelujah! Thank God for all our little new models!—And may He help us stay new for years until He comes & gives us such new models they'll last forever!—Amen? Amen!—ILY!

In Jesus' Heavenly Kingdom here on Earth some day we'll all be new models and never grow old!—Hallelujah!—Won't that be fun!—Even the whole Sky & Earth are going to be new!—No more old models!—All new models!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family