133 / 365 A Broom for Bates

I recently bought a broom from the Lions Club.  It was an impulse buy, but I didn’t really have a choice.  It was as if my great-uncle Bates was standing behind that table, holding it out to me.

You see, Bates was a charter member of the Camden Lions Club in Camden, South Carolina.  For years he participated in the various fundraising events that helped finance the group’s projects.  In 1995, at the age of eighty-three, he was highlighted in the local paper for fifty years of service with the Lions Club.  It was noted that Bates was almost legendary in sales; he estimated selling eight to ten thousand brooms and light bulbs over the years. 

For my family, this meant that every Christmas we received a broom from Bates.  I haven’t had a new broom since he died ten years ago, but today I’m ready to sweep.