This answers the question: How do you get corn off the cob without biting it? Yet, I know another way. A way I will never, ever forget. A man now long since dead taught me how to do it when I was about 6 or 7 years old. His name was Tom Horn and he wasn't much to look at. He couldn't have been more than about 5 foot tall and I remember him as being well over 55 and the only hired help I can remember on my grandmother's farm. He smoked corn silk in corn-cob pipe and chewed tobacco and was unusually quiet and shy. I remember he used a big jack-knife that he kept in his work overalls to remove the kernels from the cob because he had very few teeth and couldn't bite well. One day, something happened in the family and one of them took it out on me. I had been beaten before, but the savage nature of this time was too much for me. I cried uncontrollably and began to violently shake without realizing what I was doing. Then Tom stepped between me and my abuser. He said: "If you want to beat someone... beat me instead"!!! And he was beaten until he was unconscious. He left the farm the next day and I never saw him again until years later. It was at the Schaghticoke fair about 1970, but didn't have a chance to speak to him because the retirement group he was part of was boarding a bus to return to the home. He had aged terribly, but I knew who it was... my hero. He did something only a select few have ever done; he suffered for me and as long as I have breath I will remember him fondly. His memory reminds me of this passage from the book of Isaiah...
Isaiah, Chapter 53
1 Who has believed our message?
To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?
To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him as a tender plant,
and as a root out of dry ground.
He has no good looks or majesty.
When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
and as a root out of dry ground.
He has no good looks or majesty.
When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised,
and rejected by men;
a man of suffering,
and acquainted with disease.
He was despised as one from whom men hide their face;
and we didn’t respect him.
and rejected by men;
a man of suffering,
and acquainted with disease.
He was despised as one from whom men hide their face;
and we didn’t respect him.
4 Surely he has borne our sickness,
and carried our suffering;
yet we considered him plagued,
struck by God, and afflicted.
and carried our suffering;
yet we considered him plagued,
struck by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
and by his wounds we are healed.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
and by his wounds we are healed.
Three people have suffered for me: Tom Horn, my maternal grandmother and most of all... Jesus. My grandmother loved me, Tom Horn pitied me, but Jesus cared for me more than them all. Why? Because HE knows me better than anyone ever could and loved me anyway!!!! Those of you who know me well, are aware of how much I love gadgets and the one in the picture is a marvelous invention, but to me a jack-knife is much better because it reminds me of self-sacrifice. Now, I hope that your life does NOT have abuse in it like mine has, and I know you will never meet either Tom Horn or my grandmother, but if you get to know Jesus, you will have a hero in your life!!! Someone who can change your life for the better... permanently!!! Think about it, investigate it and live life anew!!! Really!!!