no complaints

  After posting a picture of myself for my birthday I was pleased to receive a number of comments. All of them were positive, I have some nice friends. I do appreciate the sentiments. One person did remark that she felt I still looked like the young man with the black framed glasses. I was immediately taken back to my high school days. I did wear glasses like that, I jokingly called them the Clark Kents! Never being a person that was much concerned with fad and fashion they suited me just fine. After joining the Navy I was issued new glasses! They were also the Clark Kent model. I believe there were two choices given to me at that time. You were required to wear the government issue ones while in uniform. I'm not certain that is still in effect today.

  My wife asked about that, and I was explaining it to her. The story is this. My sister and I both needed glasses when we were young. I want to say I was in the third grade or close to it. That means my sister would have been in fifth grade. How it came to be noticed I have no idea; I suppose we were given an eye exam at some point. Growing up in my family we didn't have routine examinations for anything. You went to a doctor when you were seriously injured or seriously sick. You went to the eye doctor when you couldn't see. That was the only time those services were required. So, it was determined we needed glasses. That was quite an expense. I was totally unaware of any of this until many years later. I was talking with my sister, and she informed me that the Lyons' club had actually provided those glasses to us. 

  That knowledge made me realize a few things I hadn't given any thought to before. First off, we were a poor family. That had never occurred to me growing up. I had a home, clothes to wear, food to eat and toys to play with. I had everything you needed. I knew other kids had more stuff and more money to spend but that didn't mean I was poor. I was totally unaware of my parents' financial situation, and I believe that is as it should be. That was the attitude of the times. And yes, it was a different time. I wore those black framed glasses because that is what was provided to me. In those times you didn't get a choice when being offered charity. There was no concern for your feelings or that you should get the same as those paying for the item. Quite a stark contrast from today. Beggers can't be choosers you know. 

  Today, remembering my childhood, those days at home with the family I have a different perspective. I appreciate things even more than I did. All the times I thought my parents were just being cheap or mean weren't that at all. It was most likely that they just couldn't afford it, whatever it was at the moment. But they had a way of making things seems like fun. I remember well sitting at the kitchen table and picking out school clothes from the Sears and Roebuck catalogue. There were no department stores where I lived, the closet one was 25 miles away, and here we had a huge selection right in the kitchen. I didn't realize we were buying clothes on time. Christmas time that catalogue was also marked up in the hopes that "santa" would see it. Everyone hid from the insurance man when he came to collect his monthly payment, didn't they? The fact that we never, as a family, went to a restaurant to eat, never seemed odd to me. Eating out was for people on dates, people on vacations or old people. Families only did that in the movies.

  The only repairman that ever came to our house was the television guy. And that only happened after dad had checked every tube. They had a test stand at the store that sold those tubes. Everything else dad built or repaired. As a result, I did learn a little about every trade there was. I was always told, if you want something done right, do it yourself. Great advice when you can't afford to hire someone else to do it for you. To this day I still balk at that. Hate having to pay others to fix something. Well, most times these days I just buy another one, it is cheaper that way. 

  Yeah, I guess we were poor people. I didn't know that. It does explain a number of things. But I was raised to not complain about things. If you wanted something you had to work for it. You learned to take care of the things you had. There was no reason you couldn't go anywhere you liked, or associate with anyone you wanted to. I was told I was just as good as anyone else! Nothing exclusive about living in Three Mile harbor! Looking back, I think we were a lot like the Waltons. Oh, we didn't have all that wisdom, all that love and caring displayed on that show, but we were a family. Dad was in charge; mom took care of the house and kids, and we were all expected to do our part. It was a great childhood, even if we did get our glasses from the Lyon's club.