Lessons from the Pulpwood Truck!
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| This is my Aunt Phyllis. She wanted to give “pulp- wooding” a try while visiting from Illinois! |
Pulpwooding is not for the faint of heart! From the time I was in the 7th grade to about the 10th grade, my parents were part of the pulpwooding industry. The early to mid 80’s were hard financial times for the Seals family. We still had 6 kids at home – most of us were teenagers who always needed money for something.
Pulpwooding provided “quick” money. Just go into the woods, spend a couple of hours downing some hardwoods or pines, load up the logs and head to the pulpwood yard. For the size truck we had, you could get close to $60 per load. On a good day, Mom & Dad could get 3 or 4 loads out.
Our first truck was a light blue, 4-in-the-floor, old model GMC, complete with a hole in the floor board. You could see slap down to the pavement while driving.
Mom was the official driver. One time as she was coming back from Sulligent with an empty truck, one of the tires came OFF the axle. She remembers looking in the mirror and seeing it roll away! We really thought we were up town when we replaced that old truck with a white AUTOMATIC International truck that could haul more logs! More logs = more $.
It was one thing to have a pulpwood truck for business – quite another when it is the family car! Oh gracious, my face would turn 50 shades of red when we would drive it to buy groceries or when I got picked up from cheerleading practice in it!
I am here to tell you that all of the circumstances that God ordains for us have a specific purpose. A friend recently told me, “I can just see you in that pulpwood truck and God is saying the whole time ‘Just stay faithful, because I have a future for you!'”
Paul said he knew the secret of being content. Philippians 4 says:
So what was Paul’s secret? He knew that no matter what circumstances he was experiencing, he could do ALL THINGS through Christ. By the time the Seals family hit the pulpwood years, I had become a Christian. And even though I was terribly embarrassed, it didn’t stop me from claiming the better future God promised me in Jeremiah 29:11. But I couldn’t just claim it – I had to make God-directed choices to get me to that future.
Looking back on this experience from my adult review-mirror, I recall just how hard my parents worked. They would come home totally exhausted; dripping wet in the hot Alabama summers and chilled to the bone in our crazy winters. And of course, they were almost always covered in Alabama red clay mud! How dare I be embarrassed when they worked so hard to provide?
So what lessons did I learn in the pulpwood truck? Because I have experienced “humble means”, I am more sympathetic to those who are in similar circumstances. I have also learned that even when times get tough – and they will – God will never forsake us.
God has blessed my life BEYOND all that I could have ever imagined. However, if I get to thinkin’ too highly of myself, I just imagine being crammed in a pulpwood trucks with 3 or 4 of my siblings & a load of groceries from the local Piggly Wiggly or Winn Dixie. I am actually very thankful for those circumstances now. It was part of the Potter’s molding hand on this lump of clay.
So what God-ordained circumstances has helped mold you? I would love to hear your story…
AMEN Shelly, it’s circumstances/situations like that that make us so appreciative/thankful when times get better. Thanks for posting.
I grew up pulp wooding then one day my dad brought home a side loading truck that we could haul 12 to 20 logs one.Working the woods got better but still tuff job.
Definitely hard work – I appreciate my parents for doing it!