North High School 1961 - Minneapolis, MN

Food For Thought

I Wish You Enough

Recently I overheard a father and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. Standing near the security gate they hugged and the father said “I love you and I wish you enough.”

The daughter replied, “Dad, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough too Dad.” They kissed and the daughter left. The father walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see he wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on his privacy, but he welcomed me in by asking, “Did you ever say goodbye to someone knowing it would be forever?” Yes, I have I replied. Forgive me for asking but why is this a forever goodbye?

I am old and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is the next trip back will be for my funeral. When you were saying goodbye I heard you say “I wish you enough.” May I ask what that means?” He began to smile and said “That’s a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone. He paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail, and he smiled even more. When we said, “I wish you enough” we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them. Then turning toward me, he shared the following as if he were reciting it from memory.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.

I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final goodbye.

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.

Take time to live. I wish you enough!

'Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?
'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.
  'All the food was slow.'

'C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?'
  'It was a place called 'at home,'' I   explained.

  'Mom cooked every day and when the man of the house got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what Mom put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'

  By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I   was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

  But here are some other things I would have   told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it   :

  Some parents owned their own house. NEVER   wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card.

  In their later years they had something   called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears &   Roebuck.

  Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

  My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed,   (slow).

  We didn't have a television in our house   until I was 12.

  It was, of course, black and white, and the   station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local   people.

  I was in Jr. High before I ever had a taco,   or knew what one was.   And I was 17 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza   pie

  When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my   mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

  I never had a telephone in my   room.


  The only phone in the house was in the hall   way and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

  Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.

  All   newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers   --my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7   cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at   6AM every morning.

  On Saturday, he   had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on   collection day.

  Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without 20 profanities or violence or most anything   offensive.

  If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Older Than Dirt Quiz :

  Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about.

  Ratings at the bottom.
  1. Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy   cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass   bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines   on the telephone
8. Newsreels before the movie
9.   P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were

there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only

        3   channels [if you were fortunate])
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S&H   greenstamps
16. Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18.  Mimeograph paper
19. Blue flashbulb
20.  Packards
21. Roller skate   keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25.  Wash tub   wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still   young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting   older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your   age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You' re older than   dirt!

THE CLASS REUNION

Every ten years, as summertime nears,

An announcement arrives in the mail,

A reunion is planned; it'll be really grand;

Make plans to attend without fail.

I'll never forget the first time we met;

We tried so hard to impress.

We drove fancy cars, smoked big cigars,

And wore our most elegant dress.

It was quite an affair; the whole class was there.

It was held at a fancy hotel.

We wined, and we dined, and we acted refined,

And everyone thought it was swell.

The men all conversed about who had been first

To achieve great fortune and fame.

Meanwhile, their spouses described their fine houses

And how beautiful their children became.

The homecoming queen, who once had been lean,

Now weighed in at one-ninety-six.

The jocks who were there had all lost their hair,

And the cheerleaders could no longer do kicks.

No one had heard about the class nerd

Who'd guided a spacecraft to the moon;

Or poor little Jane, who's always been plain;

She married a shipping tycoon.

The boy we'd decreed 'most apt to succeed'

Was serving ten years in the pen,

While the one voted 'least' now was a priest;

Just shows you can be wrong now and then

They awarded a prize to one of the guys

Who seemed to have aged the least.

Another was given to the grad who had driven

The farthest to attend the feast.

They took a class picture, a curious mixture

Of beehives, crew cuts and wide ties.

Tall, short, or skinny, the style was the mini;

You never saw so many thighs.

At our next get-together, no one cared whether

They impressed their classmates or not.

The mood was informal, a whole lot more normal;

By this time we'd all gone to pot.

It was held out-of-doors, at the lake shores;

We ate hamburgers, coleslaw, and beans.

Then most of us lay around in the shade,

In our comfortable T-shirts and jeans.

By the fortieth year, it was abundantly clear,

We were definitely over the hill.

Those who weren't dead had to crawl out of bed,

And be home in time for their pill.

And now I can't wait; they've set the date;

Our fiftieth is coming, I'm told.

It should be a ball, they've rented a hall

At the Shady Rest Home for the old.

Repairs have been made on my hearing aid;

My pacemaker's been turned up on high.

My wheelchair is oiled, and my teeth have been boiled;

And I've bought a new wig and glass eye.

I'm feeling quite hearty, and I'm ready to party

I'm gonna dance 'til dawn's early light.

It'll be lots of fun; But I just hope that there's one

Other person who can make it that night.

Author Unknown