“Golly, when I was in high school, Miss Baker was a real tough English teacher. In her mind, nearly everything was either right or wrong. There was no middle. If you ever confused an adverb with an adjective, she’d threaten to hit your hand with a ruler as she was passing your paper back and would pull your shoulders back if you slouched in your chair. We all stayed aware in that class for sure.”
“Huh? I don’t even remember my high school teachers’ names. I remember the principal. We didn’t get along real well. Why’d you bring up her name anyway? Sometimes, you just think too much.”
“Hummm, maybe, but TV isn’t much fun anymore, and if you walk to the park or go to a restaurant these days, seems more than half the people have their faces glued to a cell phone. There are too many talk shows, and people on the channels argue and say ugly things about people they don’t like or don’t agree with. There aren’t any short, silly shows. Heck, we’re old enough to remember, ahh, ah, what was the name of that show, ah you know, the one with the kid, the sheriff, and the other silly guy that worked for the sheriff…?”
“The Andy Griffith Show.”
” Yah, yah, that …and Lassie and those kids with the dog… ah, ah, I remember, “Little Rascals!” Seems we weren’t so rushed then, and we played a lot, especially at the beach.”
“Well, I didn’t get to play a whole lot. The dairy farm was a great place, but the days started about 4:00 AM, then school, then evenin milkin, then homework, then a short night of sleep, and it all happened seven days a week. The State Fair was fun, and a dunk in the pond sure was nice to cool off and swing on the rope or push each other into the water.”
“Yah, I remember we used to play a game, Tell the Truth. We’d each tell a story with great enthusiasm; then we’d guess if the story was true or false. Part of the fun was to really get involved with our story and get into emotions of the story as though we were real actors in a movie. Nowadays, we have to guess if the stories or news we hear or see are real or false. This whole thing of fake news, witch hunts, collusion, spying, dark government states, just mucks up the ability to look forward to a nice day of people simply being neighborly and kind.”
“Yep, and I gotta say it’s gettin hard on the farm. Our well needed drillin, and we still got irrigation problems. We need supplements for the cows, the hay doesn’t have the same protein count it used to, and the cost of producin milk has skyrocketed. My kid brother is pushin the family to sell the farm and movin into town. The kids don’t much want to work so hard to earn so little. They are movin on to tech jobs, and they are gettin pretty scared about startin their own families ‘cuz college loans still need bein paid. And well, Grandpa has died, and the wife’s gone.
“Me.…? I’m feeling like an old ass with my long ears, droopin, my belly gettin fat, my worth bein questioned, even plowin and herdin’s history. Yep, feels like it’s the back pasture… alone… or closin the gate to the farm.”
Chandler © August 24, 2019