Friends

When I was a senior in high school we had a special speech class taught by Clyde Coon, one of the more interesting drama teachers that Van Wert boasted having on its faculty.  Mr. Coon was a very strong influence on us in ways that none of us at the time would understand.  But one topic that he had us give a speech in class was called Friends, Family, Faith, Health, and Wealth.  We were to place them  in the order of their importance to us, then  we had to explain why.  Only one person that we knew would put wealth first, and this person did give a great speech and explanation as to why wealth is so important.  Eventually, naturally, we all find out.  Probably many of my classmates put faith first for that is in a sense putting God first in our lives. I recall that most thought either friends or faith were most important to them. I would actually use this same device in my teaching years later to have my students struggle with this assignment.  I have kept a few papers for some truly impressed me.  At tenth grade level, some students show more maturity than many adults would if they had to think about this now.

The truth is that many people place in importance the things that they most need and take least for granted. Family is the most likely choice to be taken for granted since nearly each one of us has family but few of us realized that we also had classmates who were orphaned and therefore were housed at the Marsh Foundation, a home for children of neglect.  Probably to that child the family may have been more important than to those of us who lived with our parents, complaining about tensions at home.  Several classmates did have deformities due to childhood illnesses so that perhaps those youngsters realized how important a good leg or a good arm is to them; whereas, those of us who had all four limbs truly did not understand the boy in the class with the crooked arm that had been deformed due to a bout of polio.

I think of all this now many years later.  At this age, health is paramount for we are nearing the time of passing from this life onto the next.  When I was a child, I had suffered through many childhood illnesses, asthma, pneumonia, chicken pox, but fortunately, all were cured by the time I reached adulthood.  But I nearly died of pneumonia one time when a very young child so that the doctor came to our house to look after me, an act that I remember to this day. I can remember wearing mustard plasters on my chest when a child, I can remember wheezing from asthma, and I remember having to take sulfa pills because I was allergic to penicillin then.  What a time it was to get through the early years in my life. I was skinny and small, but I managed to survive.

I never gave a thought to wealth much myself even then.  I worked as a child so I was paid for babysitting, waitressing in local restaurants, and eventually, being a cashier in the local drugstore.  We did not make much money in those days but prices were totally different. My first legitimate paying job was for the incredible sum of 35 cents an hour. I probably made more babysitting.

I saved all my money so that my mom and I could go to Chicago to buy me clothes for schools. My parents bought all the   necessities but I had saved my earnings to buy sweaters, skirts, and dresses for school. We did not wear blue jeans in my day to school. We wore long skirts and bobby sox.  We tried to stay in fashion as much as is possible. We poured over magazines like Seventeen, Vogue, and the few McCall pattern books that we could find, and tried to be up to date as much as we could.  Television was new then, did not have the influence that it has now, and all our clothing styles were dependent upon the department store where we bought them.

I loved Chicago.  It is a great huge city in comparison to one single Main Street in small town Van Wert,Ohio.  It had huge department stores and my favorite was Marshall Fields.  I love that store to this day as it was the greatest store in the world to me.  I bought my first cashmere sweater there, a Dalton brand, which I have never forgotten.  Another store that was big then was Carson,Pirie, Scott, and Company.  A third major department store I have forgotten its name now, but I know that there were three.  Yet, I liked Marshall Fields the best. We stayed at the Palmer House, a great Hilton hotel, where we could hear the street noises down below from where we were lodged high up on a high rise floor.  The doorman greeted us whenever we went in and out, and we even dined there, having our picture made.  That photo is on my wall now that shows me and my neighborhood friend sitting beside my mother at dinner.  My friend Janet who is two years younger than I lived four doors away from us. We eventually made contact with one another again after all these many years.

Faith is something I studied all my life. At Kent StateUniversity, a philosophy class professor had us write a paper on how we are honest with ourselves.  I never forgot that lesson. Psychology was my main interest then so I wrote a paper on the effects of religious belief upon our lives. Religion has always been a bugaboo with me, so I analyzed its effects upon the personality using psychological principles to explain how it controls or asserts itself on our lives.

I had grown up in a conflicted family. My grandmother was a fundamentalist Christian whose beliefs and behaviour drove my dad, her son, away from religion.  He has some points to make as most religious leaders do use scriptural verses to scam their victims, the believers, into handing over their worldly goods so that they can become rich from them.  That probably might be a serious problem to someone who wants to hold onto his own material gains.

My mother therefore was also opposed to my grandmother's holier than thou attitudes so she had us baptized into the protestant church closest to those dreaded Catholics who surely were the devil's own.  In fact, those who made claims against the Catholic Church had some valid points to make as time has proved. Anyway, I was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith then.  It is as close to Catholicism as any but because of the differences I wrote the paper.  Eventually, I did become Catholic for a short time.  It was due to the influence of my first love who came about in the suburbs of Chicago.  My mother and I had seen the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers so I am a wee bit suspicious today about how it is that I came to work in a country club on the south side of Chicago where I met a fella!  I did not marry him.  But a famous couple Adolph Green and Phyllis Newman were married in a special ceremony at this Jewish Country Club. 

Since then, I have come a long way when I learned of other faiths and beliefs, none of which I place much stock.  Hindus, Buddhists, Jewish, Indian folklore, stories, all these eventually were studied in courses at Michigan State University for sociology classes.  I even discovered Edgar Cayce whose concepts on reincarnation were worth a bit of a study. I am dubious at best about all religious faiths. But despite being dubious, I am also well grounded in my own personal belief and interpretation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  But like my dad, I am convinced that because the church leaders are exempt from income taxes in America, that many are preachers for the benefits more than the love of Jesus Christ.  In fact and truth, one did tell me as much. It is a good scam, being a preacherman if you can find a following.  Food is free, all kinds of contributions are made, and some like Jimmy Baker and his wife Tammy made quite a nest for themselves.


So thanks to my dad's ill health and his desire to pass over to what he believes will be nothing, I have learned that both wealth and friendship are essential in this life. My good friend from Van Wert has done me the honor of giving me a gift of money to get airfare to Colorado to see my dying dad whose last breath is still a question of time.  My faith in my friend was confirmed.  She came through doing as she said she would do. I am going to see my dad before he takes his last breath I hope, and perhaps he will learn to believe in Love which is God after all.  It is going to be a quick trip.

  I cannot afford the $88 for the motel I will stay or the $250 round trip airfare, but it will prove something. I may finally decide to play a $50 exacta on the horses now just to cover all this. I need to get my eyes examined which is expensive as well as new eyewear when I return.  Comically, my brother who is a pain in the ass to me, did not want to hear me talk of exactas or trifectas.  A 25 to 1 longshot would pay $50 for a $2.00 bet, so $20 would get me $500.  So believe it or not, I will attempt it.  But my brother says to me, Not on your friends money.  Just on your own...What a jerk!  So it is his wife who used her credit on line to get me the ticket as I won't put my card numbers online.  Too much trouble because of one lousy government scam through the internet.  The hell with the government I say!  Don't ever fall for the grants free scam!  It has been one dose of hell that America has become.  So much for Independence Day...Nobody is really independent in the USA as all are in debt up to their ears and are owned by the banks.  Ticks me off a bit to think of all the lives sacrificed just to get separated from an English King to find ourselves in debt to banking organizations.  Throw over all the banks now, Americans, to be really free! If I had the right attorney, I would own one of those damned organizations which calls itself Banking! 


So while we have our health, our faith, our friend, our family, let us not forget that without $$$$$$none of it truly exists at all!  I have  a roof over my head, thanks to family, a dying father, and a truly straight forward talking brother who reminded me of how dull assistant living homes really are, and cats who make it necessary for me to return asap, and a good friend from Ohio who truly remembers our friendship well enough to share her bounty with me now.  She wants me to heal from times past for she was there when I was hurting most.  God bless her.  Being a charity case is not fun at all, but I am not too proud not to accept her kind offer.

Yes, it is true that I could have and should have probably used an attorney, fought my dad and my brother's actions which were hostile rather than friendly.  Time will tell because I am going to Cortez to see my dad, confront my brother, and see this story through.  Whether my brother is friend or foe yet I am not certain.  We are both senior citizens now and it is time that everybody realize that.  I did call my dad, asked him if he wanted to see me, because I know that he tells my brother one story and me another. My brother sees things only through his own emotionally tainted temperament and eyes and believes what he wants.  He turned me against him when he had me evicted from the house, and said the unkind things he said to me.  He did me wrong, made me think ill of him, yet I am going to accept the drive with him to and from Cortez and will settle things as much as possible. I will repay his wife for the ticket when I see her in person.  We discussed it on the phone.

Because I spoke up about him on a question from a cousin on facebook he does not want me to be on his facebook.  So I rarely if ever talk to him.  He said that my dad did not remember talking to me on the phone.  I suppose that he told him that I was coming up there soon.  I know that my brother lies and my dad lies but at this point there is no lie about my going to see my dad.  I have confirmation from the airlines, have made motel reservations, and will come and go.  I will see to it that I know just how well or ill my dad really is.  I have had enough of lies already.

So the story goes on...there will be a follow up to this story.