Football Crazy
by Sue
Before Malc and I were married, Malc played for a couple of local football teams, and so every weekend football was going to be taking up Malc’s time. Malc’s brother-in-law had been a professional at West Ham until he damaged the cartilage in his knee when his professional days came to an end. But he was still easily good enough at local football level so he also played for the Sunday League team, which Malc and his brother Andy played for. Malc and his good mate, Ian also played together in a Saturday League side.
Most of the players in the Saturday team had wives (or mums) who would take turns each week to wash the team’s football kit. So after Malc and I were married I was added to the list of ‘kit washers’ who took turns to wash all the rather ‘smelly’ kit. The problem was, I only had a very small and very old-fashioned washing machine, a single tub with a hand-operated mangle at the back of the machine. This old antiquated machine was given to us when we were first married. We could certainly not afford a modern all-singing-all-dancing machine in those early days, as we were quite hard up when we first married. Malc was still a junior engineer and I was just a copy typist – neither of us earning much money.
On top of this, the little house we first bought, had only a single tap with cold water on the old ‘Butler’ sink in our very basic little kitchen. So, it made things really hard for me to do everything I needed to do. Twelve muddy shirts, twelve muddy shorts and twelve pairs of muddy (and a bit smelly) socks to wash. I had no dryer of any sort as we could not afford one of those either. So, I relied totally on pegging everything out on the washing line a few at a time, hoping that they would all be dry by the next match.
The shirts, shorts, and socks were so muddy, that even after my efforts to wash them I was not sure they looked much better than before I started. Still, it was my turn, to do them to be fair. They did get a bit of an airing on the line, but some of them were not quite as dry as I wished they had been. They still had a bit of damp smell about them. “Not to worry,” said Malc. He was sure that they would be alright. And he took the kit back for the next match. I can’t recall if the team won that next match but I can recall it was “Hooray” for me because, during the time that Malc played with that team, I never had to wash the football kit again. It was a difficult time but I remember it fondly and I can laugh about it now, as I look back.
The Lord wants us to remember the happy, and sometimes the more difficult memories and times, which we have. As he wants us to have a blessed and happy life. The Bible is clear that our life is very short - like a vapor – here one day and gone the next.
You may know the song by Bob Dylan called “The times they are a-changing” and sure enough they are changing now very quickly.
Jesus is coming back soon - see 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 below. And just like being at a football match when your team scores a goal or just as I was after all that kit was taken out of our little house and back to the team - we can shout HOORAY!
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)