Do you believe in Angels? There is a saying, “To those who believe, no explanation is necessary. To those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.”
The following is a true story.
Back in the 70’s Sherri Miller’s Mom and Dad bought a grandfather clock at an auction in Presho, SD where they lived. As it turned out, the clock belonged to someone who lived just a couple of blocks from them, so they ended up hand carrying it down the street to their house, where it still resides.
The clock soon became Mr. Swinson’s pride and joy and he seldom let anyone else touch it. His beautiful clock had to be wound each week before the weights were all the way to the bottom. If they do get to the bottom, the clock can lock up and fixing it requires a clock repair expert. Sherri said that throughout the years, it has only locked up on them once. They had to take the non-working parts out, wrap them very carefully and haul them to Bridgwater, which is about 135 miles from Presho. A couple of weeks later, they had to drive back and pick them up. They never wanted to do that again, so Mr. Swinson was very careful to wind the clock on time each week.
The Grandfather clock has three weights..one in the middle, that controls the time, and two on each side that control the chimes. When Sherri’s Dad started slowing down, he finally decided to let her take over the task of winding the clock. When he became really sick last November and had to go to the hospital, winding the clock was not on Sherri’s mind. When she got back to Presho a few weeks later, the weights on the grandfather clock had reached the bottom and everything on the clock had stopped. She had to get back to Pierre, (SD), so she wasn’t able to do anything with it on that trip.
In late December, she decided to try winding it to see what happened. The clock timing actually started to work, which meant the middle weight was moving down like it should. After that, Sherri was careful to rewind the clock part weekly. The two weights on the outside however, did not move, which meant the clock did not chime on the quarter, half, or on the hour. Fearing he would get upset, Sherri decided not to share this with her Dad.
Several weeks after Mr. Swinson came home, Sherri was helping him to the bedroom and he stopped at the clock and asked, “Is the clock not working?” Sherri responded that it was and it was keeping perfect time. He didn’t say anything more about it until a few days before his passing, when he asked her again if the clock was working. He said he couldn’t hear it chime. This time she told him what had happened. Sherri said he remained calm and said, “If I were able and if I could get to it, I know I could fix it.” Sherri told him she knew he could too, but he couldn’t get to it and they were not going to worry about it now. No more was said.
Sherri and her sisters had tried to fix the chimes several times over the previous three months, but to no avail. Then a few days after her Dad died, the clock needed winding. After she wound it, the clock made a little chime. She was shocked, but thought maybe she had touched something when she pulled the weight up, that caused the sound. That happened around 7:35, so Sherri and her sister sat there watching it, and waited for 7:45 to get there. Sure enough, they heard a small chime. They waited for it to come to the hour of eight o’clock. They were so excited when they heard the “minute before” chime and then the count..8 dongs..one for each hour. Sherri and her sister listened to each chime of the grandfather clock in amazement. The clock has been working perfectly ever since.
Pete Swinson with his daughters. He lived to see his 100th birthday, and was a man loved by all.
I wanted what dad would have wanted for his memory of the jeep and for himself. Dad wanted to be remembered for managing “The Boys Summer Baseball ⚾️ Program” that he so enjoyed! My dad’s dream was to be a coach when he went to college, but could not finish college due to lack of money and joined the Marines, etc……My dad took no compensation for himself each summer for about 20 summers….. and never wanted to be paid for expenses he incurred for supplies and the many Jeep trips he made for games played across SD…….unlike how it is now! ❤ Dad did this at the same time he was running his own business…..”The Sanderson Store” ❤as well as farmed mom’s 2000 acres she received from her mother’s estate when she was 24 years old!
I love this story. I’m sure many years from now, our miss Murdo Girl will remember all the fun times she had with cousins and friends. Many of their adventures would not have been possible if not for the Jeep.
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We all love Uncle Jeff’s Jeep. It has taken us on some pretty great adventures. It has been stuck more than once, and driven where only rented cars and trucks should go. Although we have asked too much of it on more than one occasion, it keeps on providing fun transportation.
Not too long ago, we loaded it up for a trip to the cabin. The purpose of the trip was to spend a day skiing at Terry Peak, near Deadwood. The first stop is always McDonald’s in Rapid City. I get a big mac, fries, chocolate shake, and a hot apple pie. I guess that’s what everybody gets.
I didn’t have any money for this ski vacation, but at the time I still had the Texaco credit card Dad had given me to use in case of an emergency. In my book, a ski trip without cash is an emergency. It worked like this. I bought all the gas, and the other kids gave me cash for their share.
I consider myself athletic, and I’m pretty brave, so I was excited to have the opportunity to enjoy a day on the slopes. I should have remembered that I gave up on tennis after my very first try, so I can’t really consider myself an “all around” athlete. It only took one trip down the slope to realize that if I wanted myself and others to live, I shouldn’t pursue Olympic skiing…better stick to gymnastics.
I was the only one in our group of four who hadn’t skied before, and I was the only girl. I didn’t think I needed help, so I was willing to stay by myself at the beginner’s slope, while the other three went on to something more challenging. I told them I would join them after I got the hang of it. One of them said something about there being a lot of trees I could smash my face into, but I still wasn’t concerned.
I rented my skis, got a lift ticket, and up the mountain I went. It was a sunshine filled, ten degree day in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I was loving it! When I got to the top, I looked around for a minute, to see what everyone else was doing, and down the slope I went. I did okay until I got toward the bottom. It was then I realized that I was “alldumb.” Any fool would have gotten a little advice on how to stop.
After the fact, it reminds me of what my Dad says. “We must be getting closer to town, because we’re running over more people.” As I barreled toward a skier who was in line for the lift, the best I could do was aim to cross over the back of his skis and yell, “LOOK OUT!!”
After I got up from my fall, and made sure the other guy was alright, I noticed the lodge was right in front of me. I was already cold so I decided to take a break and get some hot chocolate. I rather liked being a spectator, so I watched everyone else from the inside. If you include the hot chocolate my half hour on the slopes was pretty pricey. I was hoping the Jeep would need some gas soon, because I was running low on funds. I wanted to have at least one more big mac before we headed for home.Terry Peak..the view from inside the lodge
The Jeep gets us where we want to go if we treat it right. One cold day, Mark and I went for a drive. We were hoping to find an abandoned farmhouse to explore. Well, we got distracted and we were farther out than we thought. After the ski trip, the Texaco card was removed from my possession, so we were pretty low on gas. Actually we were out of gas.
We had to walk about a mile before we even got to the highway, and we were still at least three miles from town. I didn’t even have to think about it. When the next car going our direction got close, I planned to stick my thumb out. Mark said that under no circumstances would he hitchhike. We argued about that for a while, and kept on walking. Neither of us had to worry either way, because it was a cold winter day, and there weren’t many people out for a drive. Wait! We saw a car approaching. Even Mark got excited because we knew the people. It was Eldon Davis and his wife. Eldon and Alma are janitors at the school. We started yelling and jumping up and down! Eldon and Alma, smiled, and waved, even honked the horn…and drove on by.
We could not believe it! We finally got back to town (just before dark), and went to the store to tell Uncle Jeff we were going to have to get a gas can and a ride back to the Jeep. Shortly after we got to the store, who came in but Eldon and his wife. Mark and I started yelling at them. “Eldon, why didn’t you stop?”
Eldon said, “I told Alma, why that’s Mark Sanderson and Mary Francis!” He said he thought we were just out for a stroll.
Mark said, “Eldon…We were three miles from town, and freezing!”
I guess all is well that ends well.
We try to plan our outings around any pending rain because if you’ve got the windshield wipers on, you can’t step on the gas. Yesterday after school, I talked Mark into taking me to Kennebec. My friend Josephine got some penny loafers there, and I wanted some exactly like them. If the apparel I buy isn’t Connie like, it’s somebody else like. I don’t know what my personal taste is until I see it on someone else. I have quite a few Connie like things, but I’ll have to tell you how that worked out for me in another paper.
Anyway, we got to Kennebec and I found the shoes. They didn’t have them in my size, but I didn’t let a little thing like “not fitting” bother me. They had some a size too big, so I got them.
On the way home, it started raining. It was really coming down, so here’s what we had to do. We gunned it, then let up on the gas so the wipers would work. As soon as we could see a little, we gunned it again. We had to do that all the way back to town. Can you imagine what that must have looked like to the other cars on the road? Its a good thing the cops didn’t see us. We sure don’t have a ticket fund going.
We really love that old Willys Jeep! Uncle Jeff is going to give it to Mark when he turns 24.
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VALERIE HALLAMay 27, 2016 / 10:12 pmWe have to find out where that jeep is for sure! Mark probably has it in his folks’ garage. Great stories!Liked by 1 personEditReply
LIFELESSONSMay 27, 2016 / 10:56 pmCan we go for a ride in it when we are in Murdo in July???LikeEditReply
MARY FRANCIS MCNINCHMay 28, 2016 / 6:56 amHa! I think it now resides in the Pioneer Auto Museum, but we can get our picture taken with it!LikeEdit
MARY FRANCIS MCNINCHMay 28, 2016 / 6:58 amSomeone told me it’s in the Pioneer Auto Museum..I’ll find out for sureLikeEditReply
LIFELESSONSMay 27, 2016 / 10:55 pmOur adventure vehicle was a Scout. Once the engine fell out of it on the way to White River. This happened on the top of a hill and we coasted down, not realizing why the car had stopped. We got someone to send a mechanic out from town and when he opened the hood he was amazed. “You don’t have an engine!” We told him we had to because we’d driven there. It took us awhile to figure out what had happened and sure enough, he drove up to the top of the hill and there was our engine in the middle of the road.LikeEditReply
MARY FRANCIS MCNINCHMay 28, 2016 / 7:00 amHa! I think it now resides in the Pioneer Auto Museum, but we can get our picture taken with it!Liked by 1 personEditReply
LIFELESSONSMay 28, 2016 / 8:20 amWe must! For your loyal fans. and perhaps some of my readers, as well.LikeEdit
LIFELESSONSMay 28, 2016 / 8:19 amYes… The screws that held it to the mountings just jiggled loose and fell out. They towed it in to White River, put the engine back in and we drove back home. I loved that vehicle. We would take the top shell off and load up the back with kids and drive around. It was a great conveyance for kids.LikeEdit
JOHN KUCKLEBURGMay 28, 2016 / 9:33 amI believe that is the same Jeep that Jeff hauled the baseball team all over the country. He spent so much of his time coaching us; but as I recall we WON!Liked by youEditReply
MARY FRANCIS MCNINCHMay 28, 2016 / 10:15 amIt was..I think it was a 1951 Willy’s. Jeff loved coaching baseball. Billy talks a lot about it.LikeEditReply
(From Mark Sanderson) I want what dad would have wanted for his memory of the jeep and for himself. Dad wanted to be remembered for managing “The Boys Summer Baseball ⚾️ Program” that he so enjoyed! My dad’s dream was to be a coach when he went to college, but could not finish college due to lack of money and joined the Marines, etc……My dad took no compensation for himself each summer for about 20 summers…..The Jeep hauled baseball players to all the games. He never wanted to be paid for expenses he incurred for supplies and the many trips he made for games played across SD…….unlike how it is now! ❤ Dad did this at the same time he was running his own business…..”The Sanderson Store” ❤as well as farmed mom’s 2000 acres she received from her mother’s estate when was 24 years old!
Those 70ish Girls 
baseball team all over the country. He spent so much of his time coaching us; but as I recall we WON!Liked by youEdit