By the Grace of God: Go I

By Jon Rogers

As you will read through this book, you will find some of the things that have happened unbelievable. Some of the medical issues, I never should have lived to talk about. There have been car and truck accidents I should have never have walked away from. I have been lucky enough to survive each and every event that has happened and be here to share with others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514439869

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Copyright © 2016 by Jon Rogers.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (authorized version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 02/24/2016

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Mom And Dad—The Early Years

Carolyn Fox And Kenneth Rogers

Dad And Mom

The Boyds

The Foxes

Mom And Dad—The Early Years

Jon Michael Rogers, 1957

Elementary School Stories

Windy Day

All Tied Up

First Little Church

Nana, The Sitter

Schoonover Park

The Bird Man

Dad’s Dish Disaster!

The Big Move

The Bus Stops Here

Don’t Be Ice Picky

School Daze

Mrs. W

Mighty Hawks, 1969

Kentucky Kinfolk, 1969

Cumberland Falls

Sunny Florida

Four Years In Hell

Titans Coach W

Four Years In Hell

Class Clown

Sneaky Snake

I Want To Try Everything

Basketball Season

Basketball Team

Pirates Baseball Team

Yellowstone National Park

Mexican Hat And Monument Valley

There’s No Place Like Home

The Best Day Ever

Wrestling With Wrestling

Gary

Flight Of The Falcon

Best Friends Forever

School’s Out For Summer

Graduation 1976

Grandma Edna

Bargain City

Police Chase

Indian Lake

Straight And Narrow

Navy Experience

I’m Back

Electric Company

That Darn Duck

Party Central

I’m Out Of Here

Oil Company Driver

We’re Getting Married

Bleeding Ulcer

Back Home And Back To Work

Wine Warehouse

Nicole Marie Rogers, February 22, 1982

Hazel House

Willie And Waylon

I Want To Be A Trucker Too

Otis Wright & Sons Trucking

Michael Jon Rogers 7-18-1985

Crushed Foot

Big Bad Dog

Dog Donation Afternoon

Giving My Life To The Lord

Back To Trucking

Otis Wright & Sons

Alopecia Areata Universalis Totalis

Back In The Driver’s Seat

Franklin, West Virginia

Hot Load Waiting For Me

Ohio State Highway Patrol

Country Living

Country Home

Cornell And Friends

Cornell Home

No More Truck Driving

Toy Warehouse

What Was That!

First Time In A Truck

Harlem Globetrotters

Otis Wright & Sons Trucking

Blowing Over

The Warehouse

Wrong Bus

Code Blue Room 8

Gone Forever

We’re Down The Street

Family Time

First Vacation

Gatlinburg And Pigeon Forge

Dollywood

Venice Beach Here We Come

Florida Trip

Heart Scare

(Friday, May 8, 2015)

(May 8, 2015)

Back To The Warehouse

Todd Is Gone

Second Surgery Needed

Warehouse Closing

Winter Blues

Apartment Out Of Town

Big Headache

John Gone Now Too!

Sewer Cap Escape

No More Working

No More Driving

Blessed By Words

A Second Chance

Ephesians 2:5

For grace ye are saved through faith and not of yourselves, it is a gift of God.

INTRODUCTION

I would truly have to say that my entire life has been a gift of God.

At times, it has been very tough physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I am still here by the Grace of God; that is why I picked the title for this book.

I am very thankful for my parents and the family I grew up in.

It is also a blessing that I am able to share my words with others.

I want to share my life with the hopes of inspiring and encouraging others like me to never give up. God truly does hear and answer prayers. He is watching over each and everyone of us on this earth and beyond.

My life has been one of many ups and downs, victories as well as defeats.

There have been a many times I have been badly bruised but, because of my faith, never broken. I have fallen many times but always got back up.

I want others to remember, don’t ever let anyone tell you you’re not good enough. If there is something you want to do or try, do it and do your best.

You have a God-given inner strength inside of you, and God will be with you every step of the way. I know it sounds cliché, but you will feel so much better if you try and fail than if you don’t ever try at all.

As you read through the stories in this book, I have failed many times.

But also, as you will see, it was never for the lack of trying.

I have had many personal victories along my way. If God said it, then I believe it. I have always put my faith and trust in God’s words.

Sometimes we get busy in our daily lives and we forget about God.

Almighty God never forgets about all of His children. He is there for each one of us every step of the way. All we have to do is ask him into our lives. A short simple prayer is all it takes.

INTRODUCTION

As you will read through this book, you will find some of the things that have happened unbelievable. Some of the medical issues, I never should have lived to talk about. There have been car and truck accidents I should have never have walked away from. I have been lucky enough to survive every event that has happened and be here to share with others.

I have also had my share of self-inflicted problems, I will call them, especially my teen years—stories of lessons I had to learn the hard way. Some of the stories in this book, I’m sure my mother and father never knew. They may have also known but just figured it’s best I learned it on my own the hard way.

Some of the stories are my best recollections and some told to me by family members over the years. Some of my earliest years are a blur because of my many physical issues as an infant and toddler.

I also learned at a very early age. God really does put His angels in our paths when we need them most. There have been many family, friends, and others who seemed to be put directly in my path when I needed them the most. There were also times when I myself seemed to be put in other people’s paths when they needed someone as well.

I will share with you as many events as I can and hope you enjoying reading the stories just as much as I have enjoyed sharing them with you.

God truly is an awesome God—Amen.

Jon M. Rogers

MOM AND DAD—The Early Years

Most of what I know about Mom and Dad’s early years have come from my own mother’s writings. She passed away just this year, 2014, on Thanksgiving Day. I remember the preacher from her church speaking at her funeral. It really did make us all think about the type of person she was to be taken home on that particular day. She always gave off herself in so many different ways. She enjoyed teaching young children how to read books.

She had suffered from Alzheimer for many years after my father had passed away some years ago from a very unexpected brain aneurysm. He passed away a day after his birthday. He had retired and was doing all the right things. He had given up smoking years before, and he and my mom had started getting exercise by walking the local mall in the mornings.

At the time, my younger sister, Sue, was a flight attendant for an airline. She was living out in Texas and had just visited that same weekend.

My older brother, Mark, who is an architect, was living in Celina, Ohio, about thirty miles west of Lima, Ohio. He had just moved from a job in Washington DC. Everything happened so quick and was totally unexpected as you will read further on in this book. You truly are here one day and gone the next. My older brother, Mark, has cared for our mother for the past fifteen years.

So I will do my best to share the early years of Mom and Dad with her own writings, which have been given to me.

I got my writing ability from my mother; she had a gift of combining words on the page. I received lots of cards and letters with poems in them. She had sent them out to all her closest friends for a number of years.

There is me, Jon M. Rogers, married, with wife, Cathy, son, Michael, and daughter, Nicole. I have two grandchildren, Isaiah and Lani.

Carolyn Fox and Kenneth Rogers

My mom Carolyn and dad Kenneth met the summer of 1952 at Indian Lake. Indian Lake was about thirty miles southeast of Lima, Ohio. Back in the ’50s, it had all kinds of rides and a sandy beach. It was a very popular place for young people to meet. People from all over Ohio went there. They had an old wooden roller coaster, Ferris wheel, and amusement rides. There also were two dance halls with live bands playing live music, so it was a very popular place. One dance hall was called the Stardust Ballroom, and the other was called Dance Land.

Mom was visiting down at the lake one weekend with friends when she was introduced to my dad. He was down there with some of his friends. He got Mom’s phone number and he called her at home a few days later.

When he called her, she said she didn’t remember exactly who he was. He told her who he was—Kenny Rogers—and asked if maybe they could go out together sometime soon. He said he was the one with the dark hair. She said of course, but she was leaving with her family on a vacation to Florida and they would have to wait until she returned.

Much to Mom’s surprise, that Sunday, my dad called her from here in Lima, Ohio. That afternoon, she got a dozen roses delivered to her motel.

When she arrived back from her summer vacation, Dad called and asked her if they could go out sometime. The first date they had was at the drive-in. She said he was a gentleman and very polite, opening and closing her car door. They talked together during the movie a lot, and they both sat on each side of the car. She said her first impression was he was so nice, polite, and really good looking. Her mother, Florence, my grandmother, was very impressed with Dad.

DAD AND MOM

Mom and Dad had a date every Saturday night from then on. They always went to see a movie. There was not much else to do in Lima, Ohio, at that time. They couldn’t afford both at the time, so it had to be one of the other.

My dad worked at a pest control company, and Grandpa also referred to him as the little spittle bug when he called. Not sure Dad ever heard him say that.

They spent the entire summer together, dating every Saturday night or going down to Indian Lake with other friends.

One evening while they were together, they had an accident in the car. My dad had a 1940 Oldsmobile. He was going much too fast, and they rounded a corner; the car flipped over. The car ended up in the grass and on its side, and both of them had a few scratches.

A local police officer came by and helped Dad get the car back upright.

My dad, of course, had to explain to my grandma Florence and grandpa Lester all that had happened. Grandma and Grandpa did a lot of frowning and scolding at that time. During the daylight hours, the car looked very banged up. Thank God both of them were OK and the car was still driveable.

One evening, they decided to go out to a movie and dinner after Dad got off work. He told Mom he would go home and change his clothes and it would only take a second. He pulled up in front of one of the nicest homes in town. He got out of the car and disappeared on the south side of the house. What was strange was there were no lights on in the very nice house at all. A few minutes later, he came back out to the car and was all dressed up.

Only after they had got married did my mom find out the home they pulled up in front of actually was the mayor’s house. Dad lived across the street.

DAD AND MOM

He didn’t want Mom knowing at that time where he lived or what house.

As time went on, my dad asked Mom to marry him, but Grandma didn’t think they knew each other long enough yet. Each time after, whenever they took a ride in the county or went to a movie, he would ask her to marry him.

Dad invited Mom to a Christmas dance downtown at a place called the Milano Club. When the evening was over, they went back to the car, and my dad asked her again to marry him. He then handed her a diamond engagement ring, and, of course, she said, Yes. So that’s how our family started.

By that time, Dad had gotten a job at a place delivering fuel oil. Mom worked uptown at the National Bank. They would meet for breakfast every Saturday morning. Mom would take my dad’s check and her paycheck, then give him ten dollars to live on during the week. They were busy planning their future together. They set a date for the wedding; it was going to be April 11, 1953. A wedding dress was fifty dollars, and a veil was ten dollars. That was big money back in the early ’50s. The reception was at a restaurant in downtown Lima.

My Mother Carolyn, and her Mom and Dad. Never met My Grandmother Edna and her husband Steiner. The subject was never brought up. Mom had never met Dad’s parents either.

One morning, a short time before the wedding, Mom got a call from Dad. He needed to tell her that he was only seventeen and his mother, Edna, my grandmother, would actually have to sign for him to get married. Mom was twenty-two at the time. My grandmother Edna would have to cosign to allow the marriage.

In all the months they had been together, neither one had asked how old the other person was. My grandma and grandpa on Mom’s side of the family had never thought to ask either. They just assumed they were the same age.

THE BOYDS

My grandmother Edna had to give her permission for Dad to marry.

About three weeks before the wedding, they had saved enough money to get an apartment. They also had a stove, refrigerator, a couple of end tables and two lamps, a kitchen table with four chairs, and my mom’s bedroom furniture from her own house. So everything was ready after the wedding.

They were married on April 11, 1953, at the First Church of God on Catalpa Street in Lima, Ohio. They both had to be back to work the following Monday.

After the wedding, they went to my grandma Edna’s house to visit my dad’s aunts who had come up to the wedding from Williamsburg, Kentucky.

To this day, I am not sure if Dad’s mom or dad even attended the wedding. I didn’t know much about Grandpa Edna’s husband except his name was Steiner and he was a World War II veteran and now was a painter of some kind.

The two-day weekend was their honeymoon at the little motel out by the highway. Sunday evening, they settled into their little one-bedroom apartment in town.

Mom always talked about an elderly guy who hung around outside their apartment. Each morning, when Dad went out to go to his car to go to work, he would give this man a dollar. Mom told him he looked like a bum and he would probably go right down to the closest liquor store and buy a bottle.

The story of the disheveled man reminds me that we all at times entertain angels unaware. She remembered Dad giving him a dollar every time he was there panhandling.

In 1955, Mom worked at a chemical company in town, and she became pregnant with my older brother, Mark. My brother was the first child in the family. I was born in 1957, and my younger sister, Susan, was born in 1962.

THE BOYDS

My dad’s mother’s name was Edna Boyd. She was married to a Steiner Boyd. I know my grandfather was a World War II veteran; he was a sharpshooter and survived the Battle of the Bulge. My dad also had a sister named Bobbie and one named Juanita.

When Steiner returned home from the war, he had all the children split up and sent to different orphanages. My dad would always run away from wherever he was sent and somehow find his way back to Grandma Edna.

Grandma Edna’s mother and father lived down in the hills on a mountain in Williamsburg, Kentucky. You will read all about them later in this book. That would be my great-great-grandmother Pearl and my great-great-grandfather Curly. We visited them a few times with Grandma Edna. Grandma Edna was a maid or cook at several motels and restaurants in town.

Dad often joked they would move to a new place whenever the rent was due.

We don’t know much about Grandpa, except he liked to drink and found himself in jail a lot. There were many times we were not allowed to go visit with Dad if he knew Steiner was going to be there. I do remember one morning visiting them. He was laying there asleep on the couch. Grandma Edna was standing at an ironing board with her hair up in curlers. I don’t recall him ever waking up the entire time we were there. When we were in junior high school, Grandpa Steiner passed away of some type of cancer. I remembered riding through town in the hearse on the way to the cemetery. Grandma Edna was standing in the cold, holding the folded-up American flag. She jumped a little bit when the honor guard for veterans fired off their rifles toward the sky.

THE BOYDS

We never knew Steiner or spent time with him, and Grandma was always too busy supporting both of them to really spend any time with us at all. I remember even hearing once that the daughter Bobbie passed away and Grandma didn’t have money to even attend the funeral. Bobbie was always moving and now living somewhere in Texas. We have met and visited with my dad’s other sister, Juanita, a few times. She and her family live up in Toledo, Ohio. The jury is still out on who Dad’s real father was; it wasn’t Steiner, and his sister Juanita thinks it was a man named John Rogers.

Later, after Steiner passed away, we got to go visit more, since he was gone. Grandma Edna at that time lived next door to a funeral home and had her own apartment. She stayed there for many years until she qualified for senior housing at a very nice place called the Towers. She lived there the rest of her life. She finally had friends her own age and a very nice place of her own. The Towers in downtown Lima, Ohio, was very nice, with everything in walking distance. In all her years, Grandma Edna had never learned to even drive a car.

Whenever we had family holidays, we would drive over and pick up Grandma Edna at the Towers and bring her to our house. Then one of us would drive her back to her apartment downtown. It was a shame it took her a lifetime to find a nice place to live and some good friends. She stayed at the Towers until she passed away. The night she passed away, she actually called Dad. She said, she felt like she wanted to hear his voice one more time. It was very early in the evening; I know Grandma always went to bed at 7:00 p.m. She told me once she was always up by at least 5:00 a.m. So at least they got the chance to speak one more time that night. No one ever knows when God will call your name, so be ready.

THE FOXES

Mom’s parents were Florence and Lester Fox. They had a house out in the country. Grandma worked at the Lima State Hospital for the criminally insane. They had a very famous inmate at that time named Rupert who had killed his entire family on an Easter morning in 1975.

Grandpa Lester worked at Buckeye Pipeline as a welder, and he liked to hunt racoons. They had several pictures of my dad and uncle kneeling by the chicken coop, several pelts of racoons hanging on the side of the coop wall.

When we got older, Grandpa Lester would tell my older brother, Mark, and I about when he was young working for ten cents an hour. We would look at each other and think maybe he should be in the hospital for the insane. Digging ditches for ten cents an hour—big money in the early ’40s.

Grandma and Grandpa Fox were much different and tried being involved with all the grandchildren. My mom’s sister Marilyn lived thirty miles north in Findlay, Ohio. The families would get together on each holiday and take turns. Mom would have Easter, her sister Marilyn would have Thanksgiving, and Grandma and Grandpa Fox would have us all there for Christmas.

What I remember most was every year, on our birthdays, we would get a crisp new one-dollar bill in a birthday card from them. I also remember, one Christmas, all the grandchildren got vinyl slippers. The slippers were identical, just a different color, so there were no arguments.

I remember as we got older, Grandma and Grandpa Fox would take all the kids fishing in the summertime. We would stay over the night before and then get up very early and drive to St. Mary’s Lake for a day of fishing. We packed up the car the night before, so we were all ready to go first thing in the morning. Grandma and Grandpa had fished at the lake many times. They had their favorite fishing spots around the big lake.

THE FOXES

We would park and get all the fishing gear and folding lawn chairs and go to their favorite places. Then we would sit quietly and wait for the fish to come. Of course, we would have to be very quiet.

The day I went fishing with them, I caught an all-white catfish with pink eyes. Grandpa would make a big deal of it, making sure all the other fishermen who walked by saw his grandson’s important catch.

At the end of the day, we would have our buckets full of fish to take home with us. We would take the lawn chairs and put them back in the car trunk with the fish. Then we got in the car for the hour-long ride back to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. When we arrived home from our day of fishing, the fish were put out in the chicken coop still in there buckets.

Early the next morning, after our breakfast, we would clean all the fish. I can remember the unusual catfish I had caught got the same treatment as the rest of the fish. Its head was chopped off, and it was cleaned and wrapped in wax paper and put with the rest of them in Grandma’s freezer. Grandma and Grandpa always had a big supply of fish because they would do this with all the grandchildren all summer long.

Mom’s mom and dad were always involved with all the grandchildren on both sides of the family. Grandpa always had his dog, Charlie, with him wherever he went. Charlie was a little miniature dachshund, his faithful companion.

One Easter at our house, Grandpa Lester sat down at the end of the dinner table. He was sitting in Dad’s usual spot, with Charlie’s leash wrapped around leg of the table. He was giving the dog some meat from the dinner table.

Dad, not being a dog lover, was not real amused. He still didn’t say anything, but we could tell he didn’t like it very well, plus his relocation from his head chair at the dinner table.

MOM AND DAD—The Early Years

My earliest recollection of both Mom and Dad was when I was very young. Mom worked at a bank downtown, and Dad worked for a fuel oil company. He drove there until Texaco opened a terminal in Lima and he got a job as a gasoline tanker driver for Texaco—you know the slogan You can trust your car to the man who wears the star, the big bright Texaco star. It was her last job before my older brother, Mark, was born in 1955. That was the bank in downtown. Dad, my older brother, Mark, and I would go down and pick her up from work sometimes. After my older brother was born and Dad got his job at Texaco, I’m sure she left the bank to stay at home. I am sure she didn’t return to work for a few years. I always remember her being at home with us. I do recall as my brother, Mark, and I got older them hiring a sitter for us.

There are a few places in this book I have had to rely on my own memory or recollections of other family members. I just truly can’t remember a lot of my early years. Some of the stories are from my mother’s stories that she had written at the time. She had good friends that she shared a lot of our stories with as well.

I will start my book where I am old enough to remember events that have happened to me. Some of the stories will be of what others have shared with me.

Mom was still at home, and Dad was working for Texaco driving a tanker truck.

My older brother, Mark, is here, of course. I was still a baby, and we were living on Fourth Street. My younger sister, Sue, came later.

Jon Michael Rogers, 1957

I was born on April 4, 1957, at Memorial Hospital in the east side of Lima, Ohio. The weather reported an approaching snowstorm coming later that night. Dad arrived home from work, and they decided to go to the grocery store. They wanted to get some food and snow boots for my brother. In case it did snow, they would be ready. My brother, Mark, was two years old at the time. Mom was pregnant for me, but I wasn’t expected for a few more months. My birth that night was really a big surprise and unexpected.

Sometime during the night, it did start snowing, and Lima, Ohio, got one of the biggest blizzards ever. Mom woke up my dad sometime during the night to tell him she needed to get to the hospital. They both got up, dressed, and woke up my brother. He was still in his pajamas when they left the house. My older brother was dropped at a friend of the family for the night.

They jumped in the little Ford Comet and down the snowy streets they went. Dad stopped a little carryout called E-Z Check Mart for some cigarettes. My dad could always be seen with a pack rolled up in the arm top of his T-shirt. Expecting a long night at the hospital, him being a smoker, cigarettes were a necessity.

As soon as they arrived, Dad pulled up to the emergency entrance. He got Mom a wheelchair and took Mom inside. He went back outside quickly to park the car. He got her checked in, and her doctor was called. Mom disappeared down the hallway with the nurse to wait for her doctor to arrive.

Dad found the nearby waiting room and paced and smoked with the rest of the gentleman. At times, a birth was quick; other times it could take hours.

Back in the ’50s, expectant fathers would have never even thought about watching the birth of their child. Their job was to smoke and talk sports of the day. It was the doctor who brought children into the world. Usually, the same doctor would deliver all babies for an entire family.

Jon Michael Rogers, 1957–?

Once a child was born, a nurse would come to the waiting room and show the waiting father the baby. She would let them look the child over and then right back to the mother. If she had a hard time giving birth to the baby, she would rest. The baby would be returned to the nursery with all the other newborns.

I have been told this story a hundred times over the years about my birth. The nurse in charge brought me into the waiting room for my dad to see. I was wrapped in a blue hospital blanket, and the nurse carefully handed me over to my father. He slowly and carefully opened the baby blanket, and there I was, the smallest baby ever. I was a few months early and premature as a baby, very small.

As