From the Pigpen Was I Born Too Late?
I extend the warmest of greetings to you good citizens of Wayne County. The temperature is hovering around 100 degrees as I sit at my keyboard pondering as to what I would like to or more appropriately what I should share with you faithful Buzz readers this month.
No one has ever accused me of being brilliant. I don’t ever remember being mistaken for a Rhodes Scholar, an Albert Einstein, or a rocket scientist. I think it safe to say, I was born a plain, little country boy and most likely will remain that way for the rest of my days. And I might add, I find myself quite content in that role. I like to smell freshly mowed grass, watch kittens play, and try to spot a rainbow after a thunder cloud. If that defines me as antiquated, Paleozoic, and bordering on Neanderthal, so be it.
This is a great country we live in! Don’t let anyone convince you that it is not. Life in these United States has changed since I was a young, innocent, and naive kid growing up in the Nahunta Community of rural Wayne County. Change is often subtle, evolving at such a slow pace that small differences are sometimes not easily detected.
I used to ride my bicycle or drive the Farm All 140 to the country store. On most occasions, I would not meet any traffic coming or going. Now, I normally have to sit at the end of the dirt path, we live on, and wait for several vehicles to pass before I can get onto the Highway. I, also remember when the keys where never taken out of our cars and we very seldom ever locked our house. People were not afraid to give a hitch hiker a ride or stop and help a stranded motorist. I am reminded of Edith Bunker who used to sing: “those were the days.”
Though all of the people in our neighborhood were not related, I think it safe to say, that we were all family. We worked hard and went to both school and church if we could hold our heads up. We were taught by example, not merely by rhetoric. In my youth, a man’s word was just as good as a notarized contract is today. You were greeted by yes mam and no mam. You were taught to stand up when a lady entered the room and to open the door for women.
I cannot, I refuse to abandon those tested and time honored values of yesterday. Our nation might do well to pause and take a cool refreshing drink from that nostalgic fountain. Until we next meet, as always, be of good cheer.
