RON'S TESTIMONY AS TOLD BY HIS BELT BUCKLES

Among Ron's things was a box full of mostly brass belt buckles -- many, many belt buckles. As I went through them, I realized they told a big part of his life's story. The one that shocked me was one with a marijuana plant on it. That was obviously from his Outlaw or pre-repentant days as were the two buckles advertising beer. He had a couple from Brown & Root, Inc. where he was a welder in Texas. He was really proud of his prestige and abilities as a welder and he liked the money. There were a couple that had to do with Texas. He lived there twenty-something years. After he became disabled and lost everything he moved back to the Mt. Vernon area. He lived in Wayne County a while where he had horses, so there were a couple of belt buckles with horses on them. There was one with a Honda motorcycle on it. That surprised me because he has always been a Harley man. Then I remembered he told me he had a motorcycle once that wasn't a Harley. He had a belt buckle that had the slogan on it about "the right to bear arms" and another one with a gun. He was protective of his guns. No one was going to take them away. He had a Willie Nelson belt buckle, typical of a country music fan. And then there were the Harley ones which would be expected, including one that was really old and had an old Harley bike design. There was one that represented his new life in Christ and the giving up of the old life and its destructive ways. That buckle was the Christian Motorcycle Assn. one. I found myself tearing up as I went through the belt buckles and then I told myself "You're weeping over belt buckles" and then I regained control of myself. I did not expect to find his life story in those belt buckles.

I created a photo album showing the belt buckles but I can't get it to transfer to this page. Here is the link but you'll have to copy it and put it in the link address bar above (using a different tab/+):

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.24518518234491084&type=3