Thursday, August 13, 2020

Exeter-Milligan Update: View from the Front Office

 

Over the past few months, I have found myself sitting out on the front porch in my rocking chair, reading a book and enjoying the sounds.  I reminisced about one of our neighbors where I grew up in MN.  Not a night went by that Charlie wasn’t sitting in his lawn chair (more like lying down) enjoying the nice evening, listening to the MN Twins on the radio.  I never understood how someone could just sit there, night after night, doing absolutely nothing.  But now I get it…Charlie had it all figured out.  There is nothing more relaxing than sitting outside, enjoying a good book and just listening...to the birds, to the wind, to life. 

It also seems we have all lost our way.  The world is in such a different place now than it was back on March 1st.  At the start of 2020 we were worried and focused on how COIVD-19 was “ruining” our lives.  As we start getting back to “normal”, something else takes its place and now we have other things to worry about.

Life was so much simpler back when I was a kid.  We didn’t have to worry about what was being said on social media. We played baseball during the day and most of our parents didn’t come to the games - we were just tickled to play ball.  We tubed down the river and I am sure there were many other things we did that we were glad our parents never knew we did. At night, the biggest problems we faced were where we would play kick-the-can or who was bringing the bug spray to fend off Minnesota’s state bird - the mosquito.  As I age, I worry about the world where my grandchildren will live.  At times, I worry about the world where  my children live.  I’m afraid that my grandchildren will never get to experience many of the things we took for granted.  Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to go back to a simpler form of life, the kind of life where we took the time to be a good neighbor, we took the time to live life to its fullest. We took the time to be like Charlie - to sit on the chair, listen to a game on radio and enjoy what nature (and life) had to offer. 

So, don’t be surprised when you drive by and see a guy enjoying a late summer evening in his rocking chair with a big smile on his face.  It’s just me, conjuring up an old memory of Charlie, sitting in his lawn chair, under the big redwood trees, listening to the Twins on WCCO radio and laughing at all the neighborhood kids as someone yells “1-2-3 on Jean over by the propane tank!”

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