Posting in the P.M.

It seems rather strange to be sitting at the computer at this hour, since I usually do this in the morning! We were sitting out in the backyard, enjoying the cool evening, with the aide of some mosquito repellent. Those things are viscious and I'm paranoid with all the talk of West Nile in Illinois! I called my brother in Council Bluffs on the cellphone and caught up on what's been going on with him. He and his wife were eating icecream.......he, like me, is an icecream fiend. I remember when I was a kid and my Dad would stop at the Dairy Queen and buy us icecream...I always insisted on getting the biggest cone.....at that time a large cone was really big and only cost 25 cents. Of course, my eyes were bigger than my belly, and Dad would usually wind up having to finish it for me! Summers were neat back then. We didn't have airconditioning and would sit outside at night and burn old tires in the driveway to keep the mosquitoes away. We lived in a rather run down house in the country and didn't miss all the modern conveniences we take for granted today. Today our family would be labled "underprivileged" and perhaps we were, but I wouldn't change those early years of my life for anything. Because I grew up without a lot of the finer things in life, I've learned to appreciate everything that I have today.
I am thankful for the roof over my head and food on the table and having employment to keep the lights on and the water running! When I think back on my upbringing, I realize how much more simple life was back then. I was probably about ten before we had television and even older before we got a phone..........would you believe our electricity bill was rarely over 20.00 and the phone was about 5.00 or 6.00 a month . Gas was really cheap...sometimes there would be "gas wars" and it would be 12 or 13 cents a gallon! Candy bars were 5 cents and pop was 10 cents a bottle............I didn't get pop very often...as I recall my brother loved 7-up and I didn't care for it at all..cause whenever I did get to drink a bottle, the carbonation would make me feel like I was going to explode! My favorite things to consume were candy and icecream! We would shop at a small town grocery store and the proprietor would give me bags of candy almost everytime we shopped there. My mom made the oldfashioned fudge around Chrismas time that was nothing but sugar and cocoa...I loved it!
Don't know what brought on all the reminissin'.......I guess it's good to look back on your past once in a while. It lets you know how far you've come and what you've managed to make it through! Somtimes, I miss those days. They may not have been the best of days......but they brought me to where I am today and I like where I am and who I am! And, Lord willing, I'll choose to stick around as long as I'm allowed to! God bless!