[On Monday, I =
celebrated my first birthday in retirement. Thank you to all who are =
working hard to support me, since FDR and Congress lied and never did =
put any of MY money into an "untouchable" fund so it would be =
here at retirement with interest, and I would be no burden on society. =
Instead of cussing out the good ol’ boys, read this and laugh a bit as I =
tell you a little of my life story from 7+ decades =
ago.]
A grandson =
asked the other day, ‘What was your favorite fast food when you were =
growing up?’
‘We didn’t =
have fast food when I was growing up,’ I informed him. ‘All the food was =
slow.’
‘C’mon, =
seriously. Where did you eat?’
‘It was a =
place called ‘at home’,’ I explained. ‘Mom cooked every day and =
when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room =
table, and if I didn’t like what she put on my plate I was allowed to =
sit there until I did like it.’
By this time, =
the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious =
internal damage, so I didn’t tell him the part about how I had to have =
permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would =
have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have =
handled it:
Some parents =
NEVER owned their own house, NEVER wore Levis, NEVER set foot on a golf =
course, NEVER traveled out of the country, and NEVER had a credit card. =
In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. =
The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & =
Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he =
died.
My parents =
never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had =
HEARD of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and =
only had one speed, (slow). We didn’t have a television in our house =
until I was 14. It was, of course, black-and-white, and the station went =
off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem =
about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. And there was usually =
a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local =
people.
I was 16 =
before I tasted my first pizza; it was called ‘pizza pie’. When I bit =
into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung =
down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It’s still =
the best pizza I ever had.
I never had a =
telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room =
and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and =
make sure some people you didn’t know weren’t already using the =
line. Our number in 1952 (had to memorize it for kindergarten) was =
Hi (for highland) 2324. Yes, I can’t remember what I had for =
breakfast today, but a number from 70 years ago pops right =
out.
Pizzas were =
not delivered to our home, but milk was (in bottles with paper =
stoppers). All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered =
newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a =
paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I got up at 4:45 every morning. =
Every other Saturday, I had to collect the 84 cents from my customers. =
My favorite customers were the ones who gave me $1.00 and told me to =
keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to =
never be home on collection day.
Movie stars =
kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There =
were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for =
everyone to enjoy viewing. Cowboys in white hats always won, shot the =
bad guy, kissed his horse, and rode off together into the =
sunset.
~~
Dr Bob Griffin =
[email protected] =
www.grif.net =
"Jesus =
Knows Me, This I =
Love!"