REMINICSE -  RECALL -  RELIVE

FROM HER FAMILY HISTORY IN A CHAPTER TITLED "FOLLOWING GOD'S CALL"

Not long after this, as we were at the dinner table one Sunday, Sam Hall drove up to the house and honked, as folks were wont to do in the country in those days. Daddy and William went out to talk to him and he told them he had come to see if William wanted to go to work at Baldwin's. Sam was machinist and foreman at Baldwin Printing Company and they had an opening for someone to operate the tag press. Baldwin's made and printed the tags that went on shipping crates, bales of cotton, etc. They worked 5 or 6 days a week and sometimes overtime but no Sunday work. The pay, too, was better than the Cafeteria paid.

Of course William was interested so he went down to Baldwin's the next day and was given the job. Thus God rewarded his faith and obedience by giving him a better job opportunity at a time when such opportunities were very rare. Now he could earn money and still continue to serve God in the Sunday School and other church services.

After he went to work at Baldwin's Mother felt he should have a good pair of shoes to work in so she ordered him a pair with thick soles made of combined rubber and cord. A very strong sole. Just why she thought he needed such a shoe I don't know. But these he wore to work with slate grey work pants and shirts. They would not show the inevitable ink stains so bad.

The busiest time of all the year at Baldwin's was late summer when the cotton picking began. At that time, in Central and South Texas, they picked the cotton rather than pulled bolls and they began in August or earlier and continued until about Octob­er; and the tag presses at Baldwin's operated late into the nights to keep up with the demands for the tags for the cotton bales.

The summer of '38 brought a good cotton crop and a lot of overtime work for the tag pressmen. Sometimes they worked sixteen, eighteen, even twenty hours a day. Once two of the men turned in twenty-six hours on their time sheet! When this was challenged by the bookkeeper they explained that they had worked a full twenty-four day and two hours into the next day before they were able to take any time off and this gave them a twenty-six hour day. 

After a time these long hours began to take their toll on William but it was not the physical strain that concerned him so much as it was that he had so little time for prayer and Bible read­ing. So he began to pray that the Lord would somehow work things out so that he could have more time for these things.

Then one morning, after having worked quite late the night before, he was sitting on the table beside the press watching the tags going through and he dozed for just a few seconds. On suddenly awakening he saw that something was going wrong with the tag job and he at once jumped up and grabbed the lever to stop the press. But as he did so his foot slipped into the gears of the press and the press stopped with his foot wedged in the big gears.

He didn't scream or yell but his call of "Help! I'm caught!" did get the attention of some of his fellow workers and soon they were all gathered around him to see what had happened and what they could do for him.

The press would have to be partially dismantled in order to get his foot out and there was only one man in the shop who could do this and that was Sam Hall and he was off in another part of the building. Some of the men went running to get him, calling out, "Hey Sam! The boy's in the press!" Now these fellows had in the past pulled just such jokes on Sam; telling him that William had been caught in the press and now Sam thought that this was just another of their pranks so at first; he just ignored them. But soon he realized from their manner that they were not joking this time and he came running.

Meanwhile, the fellows who were gathered around William were trying to help him in any way they could. One man who was a Christian Scientist, stood by him, saying in a reassuring way, "Now just stay in there, Boy, just stay in there. You'll be all right."

Later William and Johnny K. would have a good laugh over William's being told to "Stay in there" when his main concern was to get out. But William admitted that the man's words and manner did tend to have a calming effect on him and possibly helped keep him from going into shock.

Sam worked quickly as possible and at last-had William's foot free. Then several of the men picked him up and carried him across the street and around the corner to a doctor in the Norwood Build­ing (later the Capital National Bank Building). There his foot was carefully examined and though it was badly bruised, it had escaped serious bone damage due, at least in part, to the thick, strong sole of the shoes Mother had bought him. The gears had cut a gash in the sole but had not gone through it. But he would have to stay off his foot for a while so a pair of crutches was provided for him to walk with. Then William had to call Daddy, who was working at Steck's, to come and take him home as he couldn't drive; at least it seemed inadvisable in his condition.

We were at the table eating dinner when Daddy drove into the yard. We were surprised, as we were not expecting him home at this time of the day. And we were even more surprised to see that William was with him. And then when William reached over into the back seat and picked up a pair of crutches we didn't know what to think! Well, they told us all about it and then Daddy had to get back to work and William laid down to rest.

But at night there was a cottage prayer meeting and William went with us. He had not been able to attend the mid-week services for some time now so he did not want to miss this chance to be with fellow Christians in the prayer service.

William had time now for Bible study and prayer and it was during this period of recuperation that Brother Flynn asked him to speak for the Sunday morning service at the Nazarene Church. This was the Sunday before Labor Day and Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Bill Jenkins had come up for the holiday. They always stayed at Aunt Mary's house when they would come up for a visit from their home in Corpus Christi„ but would, usually, come over to our house for Sunday dinner.

Now Brother Flynn would, quite often, put notices in the paper about the services at the church and he had put a notice about this Sunday's service, announcing that William Schneider would be speaking for the morning service, and this notice was read by Aunt Dorothy or Aunt Mary and they decided to come out to hear William speak. When they came in for the eleven o'clock service William was already seated in front behind the pulpit, and when it was time for the sermon, Brother Flynn turned to him and asked him if he wanted a chair to sit on. He declined the offer and rose and came forward on his crutches.

"What's wrong with William?" Aunt Dorothy asked of Aunt Mary in a whisper. "I don't know," Aunt Mary answered. "You live here in the same town with them and you don't know what happens to your kinfolks?" Aunt Dorothy chided.

Well, we didn't have a phone so the only communication we had with each other was when we could visit but we hadn't seen Aunt Mary since William's accident so she had no way of knowing about it. 

I don't remember what the subject of William's sermon was but he spoke well, bringing out his thoughts clearly and effect­ively. I suppose that when God calls someone to a certain service He gives the ability to perform it well and William was, undoubtedly, called of God to preach.