Silver Bells

Yesterday marked the start of the Salvation Army bell-ringing campaign here in town. The church Daddy serves picked that day to supply the entire area with bell-ringers, so Miss Mouse and I signed up way back in September for a 1-hour shift at the grocery store by our house. I had been hoping for months now that the weather would be fairly nice and warm. I wasn't too terribly disappointed, but I did freeze. Thanks to a heavy duty snowsuit from Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Dick, snowboots from Grammy, and mittens made by a wonderful woman in Enderlin (who passed away last year - how lucky were we to be able to get these mittens to remind us of her??!!), Miss Mouse stayed warm and cozy. She sat in a grocery cart while I stood to block any wind while I rang the bell. She had no interest in ringing the bell herself but she agreed with a hearty "yes!" that perhaps next year we would leave the baby with the neighbors and she could ring the bell then for a shift. I probably looked a bit crazy as I explained to her that we were ringing the bell so that people would put money in the little kettle and that the money was used to by food for people who didn't have food. She listened intently, though, and said, "oohh" when I was done. We went through the explanation several times during the shift. She was quite the little beggar, too; once she had seen enough people put money in, she started getting upset with those who walked by without donating. She would sign furiously and quietly say "more, more!". I tried to explain that some people were going to donate later, but she didn't really think that was a good explanation! We were thankful to have our backs to the wind, and I was, again, so thankful for her warm winter clothes. She stayed much warmer than I did (the gloves I chose were rather thin - more for running in cool weather than for standing out in a strong wind ringing a bell!). One observation that struck me, and I remember noticing this in college, too, is that the majority of people who donated money looked like they could use some themselves. There was one quite well-dressed man who stopped and donated and chatted awhile, but other than that, it seemed to be young parents in older clothes (hmmm....I probably fit that description myself, and thankfully we don't need food baskets - so looks can be deceiving, but still) and older people who were dressed, hm, let's say, not in furs and leathers. I remember noticing that trend when I rang bells for the Salvation Army (at the same store, in fact) in college. One older woman stopped and said "I donate to this organization every year. Whatever I can. They can just make all the difference." I don't think it was the wind causing the tears in her eyes. Anyway, I think we are well on our way to having a hardy, prairie girl, since she made it fairly happily through an hour like that yesterday!