Most of the highway traffic cruises by the Whistle Stop Trade Days in Clarendon with just a passing glance, but more than a few are prompted to stop because of a peculiar pickup in the parking lot. It's been modified to look like the Tow Mater character from the Pixar movie "Cars".
They’ll pause for a picture, and if they go in to the Whistle Stop, they might meet Roger Finch, who owns it, and put it there.
“My grandson thought that looked like the real Tow Mater, so I started driving it in parades and now we keep it here,” Roger said.
Roger has spent the past four years helping the owners at the trading post, but on this particular Sunday morning, his focus is on ringing the bells for the Salvation Army.
“The colonel who founded the organization to start with, his one word about it, is ‘others’. And that’s what I think is the most important, what you do for others,” Finch said.
He’s done this before, but this year, there’s a new sense of urgency. Roger has bone cancer. It’s in both hips, his ribs, and his kidney. A recent scan showed the spread is accelerating.
“They said it was in my four lower vertebrae in my back, so all I know to do is leave it up to God and do what I can in the meantime, instead of worrying about me, just doing what I can to help others,” he said.
He said he was exhausted by the effort to make the trip from home to here, but still wanted to greet as many friends as he could this Christmas, giving his time and energy away, knowing how precious little he has left.
“It’s possible I could go, and it’s probably gonna be with happy tears.”
Roger said he’s already made arrangements with the owners of the Sandell Drive-in there in Clarendon for Tow Mater to join Miss Fritter and some other Cars characters after he dies, because of all the good things they do for children in that town.