By Bruce Greenland
For the Salisbury Post

The time period between the Thanksgiving holiday and Christmas has become such a stressful and fast-paced time of year. With all of the Black Friday sales, many shopping trips to the malls, numerous civic, office and school activities, there seems to be less and less time to pause and consider the true meaning of Christmas as well as to reflect on the previous year.

This will be a difficult Christmas for our family because of the passing of my beloved father in late July 2016. He is, and will forever remain, our “hero,” but I wanted to write and convey some thoughts that have been residing in my heart for several months about another local hero who also passed away in 2016 – Mr. Lester Eugene “Lefty” Gardner.

I grew up in the early 1960s in a very small house on Ellis Street in Salisbury. The exact location was next to a small, one-level apartment building about two blocks from Boyden High School (now Salisbury High).

We had a very old oil furnace that we relied on for heat. Unfortunately, the furnace was frequently inoperable, or “on the blink,” as we used to say.  We were poor, a young family of five, and trying to survive on one income – a teacher’s salary.

Thus, the ability to hire a professional technician to repair the furnace was simply not an option. Much like the modern day State Farm insurance commercials on television, where the accident victims snaps their fingers and the insurance representative shows up (“like a good neighbor”), Mr. Lefty Gardner would suddenly appear, poof!

Mr. Lefty had learned the electrical trade from his father, an electrician and World War I veteran, during the time period in our country when boys learned trades and skills from their fathers and these trades and skills were highly valued and respected.

Mr. Lefty would usually come over early on Saturday mornings and he would normally have one of his kids in tow, usually Teddy. Always upbeat and jovial, he loved kids and we always enjoyed seeing him.

He had a very large tool box with many drawers and multiple hidden compartments. Each drawer was packed full of many tools and gadgets of various colors, shapes and sizes — the purpose for each I did not understand, and my close friends would say I still don’t understand.

In short, Mr. Lefty was like a magician with a bag of tricks. We were certainly excited and fully captivated, eager to watch his show.

The furnace was an old, dirty, gray, soot-covered piece of machinery. As a kid, I imagined that the furnace was a very large octopus that lived in our basement. The middle vent served as the eye of the octopus and the vents were its many tentacles stretching throughout the underside of our house.

Perhaps I had seen too many of the old black-and-white Lloyd Bridges undersea television shows before the introduction of color photography and underwater cameras, but I imagined that Mr. Lefty was going to go in and beat back the bad octopus and save the day for all of us.

He would work all day, only stopping for an occasional bathroom break, glass of water, or to get a part he needed. We could all hear the clink and clank sounds of his tools banging against the old furnace.

At the end of the day, Mr. Lefty would emerge all sweaty, full of dirt and soot and with a gratifying smile on his face. He would then explain the problem to my dad, my Dad would hand Mr. Lefty some cash, pleasantries were exchanged, and the two men shook hands

Mr. Lefty and Teddy would walk up the stairs to speak with my mama and have a piece of pie or cake, and before you knew it, both of them would be gone. The show would be over for the day.

On one of Mr. Lefty’s repair visits, I can distinctively remember my dad attempting to pay him. He graciously declined with a smile, dashed up the stairs and moved quickly out the front door.

At that time in my life, I must confess I only knew the very basics of financial transactions (earnings from cutting grass, buying fountain drinks at Fulton Street Pharmacy, etc.), but I knew that a payment was in order and it should have been made.

When I questioned my Dad about it, he looked at me directly with a very sincere smile and said, “Son, I don’t think that you fully understand. Mr. Lefty is a fine Christian man and he has known our family for many years. He does not care about the money! He truly cares about us and the fact that, up until a few minutes ago, WE HAD NO HEAT and we are about to face what is supposed to be a very cold, bitter winter.”

My dad — always the educator — went on to discuss the lesson in the Bible of the second greatest commandment from Mark 12:31 when the Lord said, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” He went on to describe his very painful boyhood recollection of the Great Depression — soup lines, no jobs, and no money — when everyone had to come together to work and help each other just to survive each day.

In sum, I can vividly remember this day and I have never forgotten this profound and deeply important lesson.

Mr. Lefty led an exemplary life of service to others. When his country needed him, he accepted the call and left home to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, helping to liberate the people of Europe from Nazi fascism.

After the war, he went to work at the VA Medical Center, thus serving other veterans and helping to heal their wounds, both physically and mentally, all of this while serving his family, his friends, his church and his community – what a great American!

Although it would be impossible to identify the thousands of lives Mr. Lefty touched, the one thing we can all exclaim collectively is that he was OUR FRIEND!

He beat back the bad octopuses for all of us, and we are all better people for knowing him. This world needs more people like Mr. Lefty Gardner.

Love thy neighbor!

Bruce Greenland of Woodbridge, Va., is a senior financial analyst for the Facilities Division of the Defense Health Agency in Falls Church, Va. He is a former resident of Salisbury.

Lester “Lefty” Gardner died May 15 in Salisbury at age 89. He was an inductee into the Sports Hall of Fame at Catawba College, where he starred in football and was once described by Coach Gordon Kirkland Jr. as the best guard he ever coached. Gardner worked at the Hefner VA Medical Center for 31 years, becoming chief of kinesiotherapy. He was husband of former State Rep. Charlotte Gardner.

Robert Greenland of Salisbury, Bruce’s father, died July 28 at age 90. He taught English and French and was a guidance counselor at Boyden and Salisbury high schools.