A PERFECT EVENING!

Observation of the Day!

Back in the forties and early fifties when many of us were children, we had a 4/60 air conditioner in the family car. Four open windows and sixty miles an hour. The windows had wings that diverted the breeze into the car. Of course it's different now. We are buttoned up behind closed windows, hermetically sealed away from the world.

Last evening I was driving home. It was a beautiful evening. The autumn sun was starting to ease into my eyes, the temperature was about 79, no wind and very comfortable humidity. It was the perfect storm of a beautiful autumn evening.

I turned off the air, opened the sun roof, and put the window down. I let my hand roll with the wind. I even used my hand as a foil as we all did when we were kids. I was missing a dog with his head out of the window, and I was missing a front porch to sit on watching the summer traffic pass by when I got home. When I was a little kid that porch was often our neighbor's porch. Uncle Jake, Auntie Campbell and Aunt Mary were our neighbors. Of course they weren't actually our uncles and aunts, but that relationship was very real. I spent many wonderful summer evenings, just watching the cars go by. Uncle Jake would spit his tobacco juice over the rail and Aunt Mary would often sing to me. The memory has never left me.

Aunt Mary was about thirty and loved her little Sammy Carl. That is where the Sammy Carl comes from as one of my Blog signatures. Even at seventy, she still called me Sammy Carl. Two days ago Aunt Mary passed away in Indiana. She would have been ninety-four on the September 28. Whenever I went to Indiana for a visit, I would carve out a few hours to visit with her. She still loved me as much now as she did then. I was her favorite. She liked my brothers, but I was her pride and joy and she loved me best. I was glad I had been able to reconnect with her. She had lost her husband in 1990 and often said to me that she didn't know why God didn't take her. She was a Christian lady and she was ready to go. Her mind was still sharp.

I had planned to see her on my trip to Indiana last summer. However, if you remember that was the weekend I didn't make it to Indiana because of the Wisconsin flood. I felt bad about that because she always looked forward for days in anticipation of my visit. Fortunately, I didn't tell her I was coming. She would have been too disappointed.

So in 2008 the 4/60 is gone, the porch is gone and now Aunt Mary is gone. For a few moments I relived a wonderful time of my life, but life moves forward at a blinding clip.

Have a nice day!

Sammy Carl