This is about a man who can fix anything with anything. Poverty will do that to a fellow Uncle Muddy always tells us that and I dang sure know what he means. I told y’all once you gotta make do with whatever you have around here. What with Mamaw and Muddy and Double Mamaw all on fixed income, they pool their money and our expenses and food, that is all took care of. We don’t eat out at restaurants but on special occasions, or when Mamaw just don’t feel like cooking which is almost never.

Yeah, when you live in Belle Binford, MS there ain’t always money for something a kid wants, or an uncle or anybody here for that matter. Which is why I wanted to tell y’all about Cecil DuPlessis. Now Cecil was a nice nice man; he is the one the kids always got to fix their bikes, or their wagons or anything else that was broken. He didn’t charge much; he was fixed for life since his wife came from old money and she died not long after they were married.

Cecil lives alone and he is about Uncle Muddy’s age, but Uncle Muddy says that man was born with a wrench in one hand, a soldering iron in the other and a spool of wire in his mouth and that ain’t no joke. He can fix anything with whatever he happens to have on hand, or maybe he will send you to go fetch it if he doesn’t. He stays busy too; he keeps a big milk jar, one of the glass ones you put your little bit of money in. If you can pay a dollar and that is all you have, well he just happens to be in the mood to do it for a dollar.

One time the county had to have some fittings welded for the water system, since the county water system was down, and the county crew did not know anything about fixing that mess. He charged them quite a bit for that job, Uncle Muddy told us he repaired and refurbished about ten valves, and rewound several electric pumps for them, and it cost them $19,000 dollars. But they were overjoyed since buying all that new would have been $50,000. So he did the job and did it correctly, and everyone that is on the public water system in the county was grateful.

He works fast and nothing is beneath him. Once he fixed Ms. Bernard’s toaster, you know the Benards who are always sick and never feel good. He charged her three bags of butterbeans, and a fresh batch of strawberries to make that old antique toaster work. Still working last I heard too.

Anyway, the other evening after supper Shady got to playing with his motor grader toy in the driveway, since on one end of that driveway there are lots of rocks and white sand to play with. He left it there and Uncle Muddy accidentally drove over it with his pickup at night, and mashed it up pretty good. It would still sort of roll, but the little levers and stuff would not work. Shady thought it looked pretty cool like that, like it had a wreck, but he asked Mamaw if he could go to Mr. Cecil and see if he would fix it for him.

Mamaw sent us over to Cecil’s with a fresh pecan pie, since she knows he has a sweet tooth. Oh and he is a big enormous man; Uncle Muddy says if you tell him to haul butt he would have to make two trips. He is pretty big but he ain’t as big as some I have seen. Still, we carried the broken toy motor grader and the pecan pie over to Mr. Cecil’s to see if he could fix it.

After we knocked on the door Mr Cecil came out, “Say boys what y’all up to coming to see ol’ Cecil. How is your Uncle Muddy and Mamaw and them?” We said they were fine, and Shady asked “Mr. Cecil my toy motor grader is mashed up something bad, maybe you would fix it?” Mr Cecil laughed and took the toy truck, and said “I say now, how did she get all twisted up like this? I bet you were cleaning out that gully right after the thunderstorms, making you a path. I think we might be able to do something with it.”

So we all went to the outbuilding beside his house, all the while Shady was babbling on about his motor grader and I was enjoying the day. Mr Cecil put the pie in the house of course, in the refrigerator so Lucy Dog would not eat it up from him. He lit up happy, all smiles at the sight of that pecan pie too, because he LOVES Mamaw’s pecan pie. He makes sure to go to church when the ladies lay out a spread of food.

Shady had three dollars and pulled it out of his pocket when we got to Mr. Cecil’s shop and saw his money jar on the bench. Mr. Cecil said, “Son you keep two of them dollars, since I will be happy to take that pie as part payment.” He unscrewed the lid of that milk jug and had Shady drop the dollar bill in there. Shady was happy about that, and I just kind of sat there and listened to Mr. Cecil as he talked about his late wife like she was still alive even after 25 years, his dog Lucy Dog and who was doing what and where, and our grades and all.

I saw him then as he took that little motor grader and sat it on his bench. I had never seen so many fancy tools, jigs, and things I didn’t know the name of all in one place. And it was not messy either; Mr. Cecil was neat and everything had its place with a label on it. Even Lucy Dog’s water bowl and food dish had a label on it. Man this dude is organized I thought to myself. Mr. Cecil explained he used to do architectural work, design work and such, he did just about everything technical that could be done as a real young man.

Anyway, he took the little motor grader, gave me and Shady a pair of clear safety glasses to put on, in case there were sparks or dust or whatever he didn’t want it getting in our eyes. He said we could come back, or we could stay and watch if we wanted. We wanted to stay and watch for sure. I figured he was kind of lonely sometimes, and grateful for the company. He took out a ruler and measured that little motor grader, and found that one piece had broken off during the damage.

“Y’all boys sit over there in them chairs, so my tool sparks and dust won’t burn your clothes. I can have this fixed up in about two hours and y’all can watch. Y’all grab some cold drinks out of that refrigerator in the back, and if you want you can grab me an iced coffee out of the refrigerator door.” So we did, and opening that refrigerator I had never seen so many cold drinks of different kinds in one place, other than in the store or the gas station. He had everything; I guess he liked drinks.

So Shady got himself a tall bottle lemonade, and I had a RC Cola and Mr. Cecil had him some iced coffee. He went to working on that toy and it was like magic. He first put it in a clamp and twisted the body back into the normal shape. After that he pulled off the wheels and checked them along with the metal axles. He straightened both axles, and the part where they went he straightened that up too. He had to take a welder, he said it was a TIG welder and found the exact rod to fix it, and put a new piece of metal, he called it pot metal, back on under the cab of that toy motor grader. He made us turn our backs when he welded though.

The plastic window piece that looked like glass was crushed, so he removed all that from the mashed up cab and straightened the cab of the motor grader up. He cut a few pieces of plastic looking glass he called Lexan, and made a perfect new set of windows for that thing, and glued them in. He did this quick as lightning. He fixed a few other things on it, added a new smokestack he made out of a soft piece of iron and a tire stem from a bike tire. He put a cap on it and Shady loved it.

He got that motor grader good as new, I swear this man must have been one of Santa’s elves or something. I never saw anything like it, and he worked on it like it was a special piece of art or something. Finally when he was done, he told Shady, “Take her out there in the garden and see if she will move dirt son.” So Shady went over to the garden with the toy truck and played for a minute, while I thanked Mr Cecil and tried to give him $20 dollars for his trouble. That is what Mamaw said do, but Mr. Cecil would not hear of it.

“Naw son, I ain’t got no kids and Shady give me his little dollar, and I have that fancy pie I need to go try, so you put that money back in your pocket. I love doing such as this; I reckon that is why the Good Lord put me here and put all this in my hands and my brain. Glad to help, and who knows I might need you boys to come help me weed the garden or do something or other next time.” Yeah, I see why all the neighborhood loves Mr. Cecil, I really do.

When we left, he was closing up his shop and heading back inside. We waved and he hollered after us, “You boys come on over anytime, all of you and your family are always welcome. You don’t have to wait until something breaks, oh and tell your grandma thanks for that lovely pie! I am about to eat me a piece of it right now, I might even let Lucy Dog get a piece, but it will be a small piece hahaha.”

We hollered back “Thanks Mr. Cecil” and walked on back down the street. Shady was so proud of the repaired motor grader I thought he would float away. I was thinking to myself as I was walking, “It sure is good to live near people who cares about us, even us kids.” I smiled to myself as we got home, and I left Shady in the yard at the sand pile playing with his newly repaired motor grader.

Yeah life is good. It really is and these kind of moments make me look up and realize how blessed we are, even without a whole lot of cash.