STORIES FROM PEDRO FROM THE (not too distant) PAST

Pedro, one of our church’s elders, remembers the day his home town (not too far from San Francisco) saw their first airplane. The year was 1967 and the skies were clear. A big “thing” flew across the sky and the people were terrified. People began running into the nearest shelter, hiding under tables and beds. They seriously though that the world was coming to an end since this “thing” looked like a white cross with smoke coming out of one end. One man in the community had actually seen a picture of a plane before and reassured everyone that it was OK to leave their houses.

The first radio bought in his town cost 3 cows.

Pedro remembers the novelty of the first flashlight he ever saw. A friend of his went to Buenos Aires to work and brought one back. Everyone lined up to see this new kind of light. One day while the man was at his field working, his wife got the flashlight down and began playing with it. She accidentally turned it on and then couldn’t figure out how to turn it off. She was so worried that her husband would be mad at her for touching his prized possession that she just had to find a way to turn it off. So she grabbed a chicken (for payment) and went to a local handy-man and asked for help. He looked at the end where the light was shining and he began blowing on it. That didn’t work. Next, he began shaking it violently, but that didn’t work either. Finally he decided that the only way to turn the thing off was to submerge it in water, which he did until it turned off....forever.

Pedro remembers his first pair of shoes. He was 18 years old.


Pedro


Pedro with his grandson