The Chess Set

December 19, 1958 was the eve of my wedding day.  Home on leave from the U S Navy I was staying with my parents in the home I was raised in although I had left it some three years previous.  That evening I went to visit with my future wife at her parent’s home a few miles away.  It was close to midnight on a viciously cold night with the temperature down well below the zero mark on the thermometer.  Snow was falling lightly and drifting across the highway as I returned to my parent’s home.

I was following another car at about 40 mph when that driver lost control of his vehicle and landed in the ditch.  I stopped my ’51 Studebaker business coupe that I owned at the time to insure no one was injured and help as I was able.  The occupants were a couple near my own age, out on a date.  They had no idea what they should do about their present situation.  As they were uninjured, and their car was running fine supplying heat, I told them if they just stayed put I would drive to my brother’s home, borrow a farm tractor, and haul them out of the ditch.  They had little other choice.

It was probably a half hour later by the time I got back to them, and in the bitter cold I managed to get them back on the road and headed toward their destinations.  I returned the tractor to my brother Bert’s farm, and returned to my boyhood home to rest a while before getting married that day.  I promptly forgot about the entire incident.

A few days later I received a telephone call from a Mr. Greenblatt.  He told me that he owned a furniture store, and asked that my new wife and I stop by for a free wedding present.  Not sure about receiving “free” items I yet decided to go to the business.  Upon our arrival Mr. Greenblatt asked us to select any item from his store, no strings attached, as a wedding gift.  Unsure what to do, I finally selected a very modestly priced wooden chess set which was gift wrapped and given to us.

As we left the store, surprised, but feeling wonderful, Mr. Greenblatt asked if we remembered aiding a young couple a few nights earlier when they were in the ditch.  Wondering how he knew about it, I asked.  He informed me the young lad was his son.  I then tried to give back the chess set as I wanted no payment for helping someone on a terrible night, but he insisted it was not a payment, but a bona fide gift.  I have that chess set yet today, 54 years later.