it is written in the old testament to each of us this allotment of years threescore and ten and in these years there is the time of man a time to fulfill his des work together with his fellow man in the wonderfully complex pattern of every day life time to be born and a time to grow to become aware of the lovel maturity to reflect to relax to enjoy yes this is the heritage to which we are born the blessings to which we may all  here in my parish there are some you can only look back they are the victims unable to reap the full enjoyment of the days of their youth they are the victims of my church is in a railroad town not far from a big freight terminal and repair shop in my congregation the railroad people in every compassion and not one who is in safety conscious accident  hating the ways the pain the need to get trials we may do what we will there comes a time a story of what happens to the other you might say i've got sort of an inside track when it comes to knowing the inside story behind an accident that strikes me that the ones who are hurt most by carelessness that causes accident are the ones who weren't even there i often stop by here for a cup of coffee whenever i do i'm reminded of the things that happened to the people who weren't even there i reread the story in the sad eyes of the girl who serves me this is helen although she he has never been in an accident helen is never the less an accident victim her eyes were not always sorrowful once they were bright and shin yes i remember how those i used to glow whenever helen thought about joe joe tendler was there in those days joe was about as average young fellows you'd be likely to meet young nice looking easy going good company he had been a complaint in the work hell maybe one complaint he was getting a little tired of being a bachelor eating on the run cleaning up your own place if you got around to it but all that was due for a change please as joe was a pretty lucky guy a good job as road electrical foreman wonderful girl who wanted nothing in the world more than to be mrs jo all in front of all these people began it's not of course joe was behaving the way any lucky happy young fellow about to be married would behave it was only natural joe had to take off in a hurry to reach that job on time and helen well she was on the job and her face had that glad look i'll always remember it made people feel good just watching her feeling good she went through the motions though she was quick and sure and competent in everything she did she was really a million miles away from that little restaurant a million miles away in a dream world all her own that dreamworld had everything a church complete with ministers saying the proper word i was flattered to be a part of helen saint there was a ring in and and of course a beautiful dress going to make it worth dreaming she wasn't skimping on any there was that perfectly scrumptious model how she'd been wanting for all these years and here it was exactly as she did magic and here they were what was the sense in waiting and so the fastest sail on record and while she was dreaming she furnished that house that very afternoon so joe could read is evening paper on that pretty couch that very night so she could take that paper away and cuddle close she dreamed of everything any dreamy young girl had ever dreamed before of crackling fire of dim li but on the job late in the afternoon of that day the real life joe was in a real live hurry he hadn't seen his helen's early that morning come on you guys going to move on get out of here we went through a stop sign at a day get easy joe now it was pay off time one still able to move to still able to move they had escaped the trap there three score and ten were still before them after a year in that neck brace joe wasn't quite such good company as it used to be the word said for better or for worse in sickness or in health sure joe tried to call it off but a girl like hel doesn't run out there was quite a difference between helen's dream and the reality there'd be quite a difference between living with a dream job and the real there are many days in the years left for job for george price there are fewer and the days george does have left are embittered days flavor this is lenny bellows the boy across the street the boy who once was like asunder george just across the street where every day george can't possibly help seeing him every day george remember george remembers how it was in the happy days but the price and bellows family as fred bellows lenny's father and george good neighbors good friends they'd spend hours figuring the fun they'd have on their retirement pay the trips they take to get it the wonderful places they'd see it would be soon enough their wives had waited patiently through all the long years of railroad service plenty would go to college it was all planned there wasn't a cloud in the bright blue sky of their future forty two years of good honest work george was proud of those years proud of the strength and stamina that had kept him going but today somehow he didn't feel so good when it was time to go back to work george wondered whether he was going to be able to make it funny these last few weeks he hadn't been quite up to snuff nobody noticed he hadn't mentioned it probably just in the gesture he'd be all right he could only hold out until retirement now you had a job to do and nobody was going to say george price gave up on the job and so as fred bellows climbed up to go back to his job george went back to his small tried to go to fret about those few but the doctor said no you don't walk around two days after a heart attack but they couldn't keep him away from the window he watched gra he who wouldn't be going to college this fall or any fall grace who faced a future of grief and lonely that was over three years ago george still can't get around very well let me bellows still lives across the street and though he has long since forgiven george yet his simplest actions have become to george signs of rejection their george price is doomed to stay across a little street thousand miles wide as i said before most of my congregation or railroad people i know the road does everything in its power to prevent accidents see that equipment and working procedures in the shops are as safe as it's possible to make theirs to keep the man aware  of the life and death importance of observing safety rule yet still they come the ones who forget even for the barest fraction of a second that with safety there are no second chance not all trips to the hospital though or necessarily disastrous for example there was the trip charlie o'neill made with his wife that was about the happiest trip charlie ever took he and sue had been looking forward to a tree waiting hoping finally it happ there'd be a new little o'neill along any minute now charlie was so happy for got everything else well but almost every he didn't quite believe them a little later when they told him it might take awhile and he might as well go back to work they'd call  on the way to the shop he remembered something it was just about the last thing he did remember that cigar they were going to catch charley off base when the big news there was a phone call coming he told the foreman a big one please get it to him fast when it came charlie did remember one more thing that day to take proper care getting bills attention gentle pressure on the you can forgive charlie for being excited wouldn't a new born father is one of the most excitable people in the whole world said it all to himself many times he has said that he was careless that it could have been avoided that he knew better he only forgot first one tiny  and in every case still the thing is done charlie has never seen his baby son charlie never will it is written in the old testament to each of us this allotment of the threescore and ten when you add that up literally says that the days of our years number twenty five thousand five hundred sixty seven a trivial accident might take away one or two of those days a serious one might take away a hundred thousand suddenly it might be no days left