Things you probably don’t know about your elderly pastor…

Things you may not know about your elderly pastor:

I was once arrested for robbing a Circle K convenience store. Fortunately the store clerk said he didn’t think it was me so they released me. 

The first time I was ever in an airplane I parachuted out at 12,500 feet. I didn’t get to wear a flight suit because I was too tall and I had to wear a football helmet from the local high school because my head was too big. 

In high school I once ran a sub five minute mile. I wasn’t the fastest miler in the school. 

When the Big Mac was first introduced in Phoenix in 1968, my buddies and I took advantage of the offer of the original Phoenix MacDonalds at Central and Indian School Road that allowed you to get ten Big Macs for free if you ate them all in one sitting. There was a lot of pressure because if you didn’t finish you had to pay $.45 each for the ones you ate and none of had enough money for that. 

As Chief Financial Officer of Charlie C. Jones, Battery and Electric Company, I once wrote a check for over one million dollars that was cashed later that same day. 

I shook John Wayne’s hand at his ranch in Maricopa, Red River Land and Cattle Company, and he called me, “Son.” 

I got into an arm wrestling contest that had 45 entrants and I won first place thanks to long arms that provided insurmountable leverage. 

The Mobil gas station near me had a weekly raffle that allowed you to win prizes from the top prize, a motorcycle, all the way down to the smallest prize, a football. I went every week for months to get tickets. I always lost. On the last day the owner gave me several thousand remaining tickets and I spent most of the day comparing them to the prize list. As I finished up, with just a few tickets left, I finally won a football. My brother and I threw it around until it sailed into the mean neighbor’s backyard. He refused to ever give it back. The gas station owner felt bad and gave me another one.