Thursday, December 14, 2000

Abilenian’s toy mission was very nearly sidelined
By Bill Whitaker

If Santa ever experiences a transportation breakdown, he can count his lucky stars if it happens along Interstate 20 east of here — particularly if the old bringer of joy and gifts is in a hurry.

That bit of wisdom was gleaned by 60-year-old Abilenian Jim Bradley, who, like Santa, clocked the miles this month to ensure several hundred disadvantaged children had gifts at the Abilene Firefighters Association annual Christmas party.

Unfortunately, when Bradley undertook his trip to Dallas to collect discounted toys for the party, his 1990 Ford van wasn’t up to the challenges St. Nick’s famous sleigh faces — and he and a colleague wound up stranded along I-20 several miles this side of Weatherford.

By the time they reached an eatery in nearby Millsap, the two were licking their wounds and resolving they’d have to return to Abilene to regroup.

But a woman in the next booth overheard them and graciously offered the services of a Good Samaritan — namely, her husband, who was due to arrive soon and might be able to aid them. That’s how Bradley met James Huddleston, president of Millsap Construction Services.

Huddleston did better than just help out. Besides directing Bradley’s van to a local auto repairman, the Millsap businessman insisted there was no need for the pair to return to Abilene just to regroup.

Instead, he loaned them his own van right on the spot.

“That just floored me because he didn’t ask us for anything, not even a picture ID,” marveled Bradley, who runs Bradley Enterprises, a firm in charge of fund-raising events for the firefighters association, among other groups.

“He just took us on blind faith.”

The result was that Bradley and his colleague continued on to Dallas, picked up the toys and returned to Abilene, all in time for the Abilene Firefighters Association Christmas party at Abilene High School this past weekend.

But that’s not the end of the tale.

True to his word, Bradley kept Huddleston’s van the rest of the week, then made good on his promise to return the vehicle. And, sure enough, his own van was waiting and apparently road-worthy when he returned to the Millsap area.

Only problem: Bradley’s van again broke down on the road back to Abilene — in fact, just several miles from the place where it had been repaired.

“It’s still over there,” Bradley told me Tuesday. “I ended up having to hitchhike back to Abilene, but my van is in Millsap. But that’s OK. The way I look at it, we got the main part of the job done — picking up all those toys.

“But I’m going to have to do something with that old van,” he said. “That thing is going to be the death of me yet!”

Punch me in

Political humor has been surfacing at the Paramount Theater lately, mostly at the expense of the month-long presidential quagmire in Florida.

Some of the movie-goers presenting their subscription punch-cards for the recent screening of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” were informed that, if they had a swinging-door chad or hanging chad or, worst of all, a dimpled, “impregnated chad,” they might not be admitted into the theater.

Barry Smoot, the Paramount Theater’s executive director, later insisted this was not necessarily an ironclad policy. Season punch-card holders will continue to be admitted into the theater, though subject to the vast interpretations of canvassing board volunteers at the door.

Contact associate editor Bill Whitaker at 676-6732 or whitakerb@abinews.com. Check out Bill’s previous columns at www.brazosbill.com.