A Man Named Mr. Cecil
On a recent trip to watch the "Tour of Missouri" I met a very remarkable man in Sedalia, MO. His name was Mr. Cecil and he was 87 years young. He told me that in just a few more years, he would be 100. I believe he will make it. He is the youngest of 7 kids and his oldest sister just turned 99.
Mr. Cecil is the owner of “The Old Schwinn Bicycle Shop" in town; known to all the locals as Cecil's Cyclery. When we walked up to the shop we found it closed, but as I stood by looking through the window and reflecting on the past, a man came walking down the sidewalk and stopped. He asked if I would like to go in. 
“Yes,” I said. “Are you Mr. Cecil?”
He replied, “Yes I am.”
“How long have you owned this Bicycle Shop,” I asked. He answered that he had owned it since Moses was around.
I hesitated for a moment and then asked again. He smiled and laughed and then said it again. “Since Moses was around, young man!”
As he got his key out of his pocket he looked at me and said "I am a very old man." Then he unlocked the door and we went inside.
As we walked into the store he told me to wait in a certain spot while he turned on the lights. He laughed and said, “You have to be old like me to be able to walk in the dark and find the light switch.” I later found out why he knew where the switch was - he had been walking through that store for the past 60 years.
Once the lights came on he started telling me about how he started his business. “It was 1937, and I was only 14, when I meet Mr. Schwinn in Louisville, Kentucky. After talking to Mr. Schwinn for a while and telling him of my plans, he offered me a $2,000 line of credit to start a bicycle business in Sedalia. So in the Spring of 1937, I opened my bicycle shop on the corner of Ohio and 7th.” Remember he was only 14.
As he sold bicycles to the local kids and his business grew, Mr. Cecil decided to expand into a new budding market; the latest and greatest electronic gadget had been introduced and it was coming to Sedalia. It was something that most people in the small town of Sedalia had never seen but one that most of us could not live without…it was the TV. So in 1949 he opened his TV Shop just two doors down from his bicycle shop. H
e said that when he first got his TVs in, people would come down and stare through the front window just to see the test signal…just like I had been; staring through that same window, of that same building, some 60 years later. He also told me that on Friday nights he would stay open late - till 10 pm - so towns people could come down and watch the boxing matches that were on TV.
Mr. Cecil, being quite the businessman, developed a plan. He would sell the local kids a bicycle and then the kids would bring their parents back down to buy a TV. He sold a lot of bicycles and, you guessed it, a lot of TVs.
Along with the TVs, someone had to put up antennas. Mr. Cecil said he put up 5,000 antennas in the town of Sedalia. Then he added with a SMILE, “There were only 5,000 houses in town.”
He also told me that he sold 14 different brands of TV's over the years and then proceeded to name every one of them. It reminded of the old McDonald's commercial about the Big Mac. Remember how it went .....
He then walked behind the old counter and pulled out an old log book, probably 2 1/2 inches thick - each page had lines on it front and back. I would guess each page must have had at least 25 lines on each side. He pointed at one of those lines and said, “This man bought this TV on this day and this is the brand, the model number, and the serial number.” He looked at me and added, “There are 3 books just like it.” Every TV he ever sold was listed - it was a piece of history.
As I looked at the names, I thought of another book that has a list of names in it and wondered what it will look like. I also wondered if all my friends will be listed in that book - I hope so....
As we said our good-byes I realized how remarkable this man was, but Mr. Cecil had one last surprise. He looked at me and said, "Young man. It does not matter what you have on the outside. It matters what you have on the inside."
I Smiled and knew what he was saying. It was as if I had known Mr. Cecil all my life. I will always remember him!!! Mr. Cecil: A man that had polio when he was 5 and lost the use of his left arm, but went on and will leave this World a much better place.
What can you do?