Have you ever been hungry?
Excerpt from Remembrances of Orval Dallas Schneider, My Father
By His Son Dallas Max Schneider
(My Father) did not go to Church regularly but saw to it that his children did. His lack of spirituality did not dim the Christ like generosity that flowed from him so naturally.
It was
almost a daily affair that some derelict would come into his business and ask
for money so he could eat. Dallas would drop everything and take desolate
stranger to the restaurant next door and see that destitute man was fed anything
he wanted and then he told the restaurant owner to fix him a sandwich to take
with him and paid for it all with a 20 dollar bill and told the owner that when
the beggar was done eating to give him the change and Orval Dallas would leave.
This happened many times and one
day, young Dallas Max, who had never missed a meal in his life, chided his
father for this gullible generosity. "Why do you do that? The tramp will
only take the change and go buy liquor with it."
Orval Dallas replied, "Have
you ever been hungry? I have and it hurts!"
And young Dallas Max learned a
great lesson. It changed and
humbled him as he realized he had been taught something of tremendous value
that could not be learned in the great universities of the land-kindness and
non-judgmental generosity.
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