I am an OLD Man

Ok, I am an old man. I know it is not that good to live in the past but if we do not learn from the past, like they say we are doomed to repeat our mistakes.

In reviewing my life I have seen many things change. Some for the better and some, in my opinion, for the worse. I was brought up in a small town. Population was bout 7 thousand souls. That same town is now about 40 thousand people. I do not live in that town anymore but the one I do live in has had a similar growth. I am going to briefly list some of the changes I have seen in my life.

The town I lived in had one main street, called, you got it, “Main” street. There were other streets of course but they all branched off of Main. People parked their cars on the street and there was plenty of parking spaces. There were no parking meters. There were a lot of people walking up and down main street shopping at the variety of stores on the street.

There were no shopping malls or strip malls or Walmarts. No supermarkets of any kind. If you wanted meat, you went to the butcher shop that had saw dust on the floor and maybe 20 or so deer hanging ready to be cut up and wrapped to be placed in cold storage. That of course depended on the time of the year. Nobody had freezers and real refrigerators were not that abundant.

There was a bakery with all kinds of fresh made goodies. Women usually made their own bread, but occasionally as a treat, we would get store bought bread. Most of the time it was not sliced, but finally some bakeries started slicing the bread for their customers. Our bakery had gals in little Dutch girl outfits that I remember. Sometimes they would sneak a treat to one of us kids just for fun and hope that our moms would let us have some of what ever they were selling. Boy the place smelled heavenly.

Most women did not drive cars. Most women did not work out of the home. My mom did as my dad’s construction occupation was mostly seasonal. Unfortunately our bills went on all year long, thus mom worked.

When you went to one of the car dealerships on main street they were nothing like what we have today. Just a store front, with maybe 3 or 4 cars on the floor, and a service bay in the back. If you wanted a new car you looked at the models they had in the store and you ordered one in the color and style you liked. It would be delivered sometime later. There was an alley on both sides of main street and if you had to get your car serviced you had to go down the alley and into the service department of the dealer.

Most men were embarrassed if they had to take their car in for services as most men could repair their own cars and it was kind of a knock on a guy if he had to have someone else do the work. Of course there were folks like doctors who just did not have the time.

There were no rows of cars on a lot out front. There were no used cars either. There were some used car lots on the outskirts of town, but the new car dealer did not deal in them. Most folks bought used cars from private parties or the cars were passed down to family members. People kept their cars for a much longer time than they do these days. Most people I knew saved and bought a car cash. This was especially true in my family. However my family never had a new car until long after I was married. Most families had only 1 car unless you had a business or lived on a farm where you may need a truck or van. My uncles had new cars as they were traveling salesmen and made a lot of money. Maybe as much as $10,000 a year. I wanted to go to college so I could make that much money some day.

There were service stations (gas stations) that really gave you service. When you drove up someone would rush out and ask you what you wanted. He or she would wash your windows, check the tire air pressure and fill your tank. You got real service and if you were a regular customer sometimes the companies would through in some gift like stake knives or dishes to encourage you to do business with them.

A lot of people had telephones in my town, in fact most people did. But most people were on what was called party lines. Maybe 3 or 4 other families had to share one line. You could tell if it was you line by distinctive rings. One ring and a pause, two rings and a pause etc. If you were snoopy you could listen to other peoples conversations. If you had to make a long distance call to relives in a far off place like the Midwest, usually the most experienced person in the family, in my case one of my grandfathers would contact the long distance operator and made the connection. It was very expensive to us and all the kids were expected to be quiet and talk clearly and concisely so as not to run up too large a phone bill. Phones were for serious conversations not toys as they are today.

There were no freeways, toll ways and few multi-lane roads. Most roads between cities were merely two lane roads. If you got behind a logging truck or something, you had to pass and take your life in your hands. A trip to my grandfather in Salem Oregon was a two day trip on mostly a two lane road. Today I can do the same trip in about two hours. Gas was about 19 cents a gallon, but consider that my father made thirty five dollars a week, so still that was a lot of money in those days. My mom did not drive when I was very young and if we had to go to a city for shopping we took the bus. That was the normal mode of travel in those days. Most cities had trolley cars and busses and people used public transportation even more then we do now. In the West because of the great distances most people had one car, but many people shared rides to and from work.

There was no TV and no Video games of any kind. I did not have a TV until I was a senior in high school. We would go to the old movie house maybe twice a year or so and us kids would play out what ever the movie was about for quite some time until we saw another movie. Many times we played pirates or cowboys, or soldiers or monsters from the black lagoon or what ever caught our attention. When us kids got home, no matter rain or shine, we would quickly get our chores done and go out to play until a mom would call us in for dinner. After dinner we were at it again until one of the moms would call us in for the evening. We had to do our homework then and maybe listen to a show on the radio. The only thing that would stop us from this routine was if we were sick or had to go someplace or were being punished by our parents. We could play late into the evening in perfect safety as we never heard of children being murdered or kidnapped or worse as it is today.

There were neighborhood schools. There were no portables and each class was small enough that one teacher could keep it orderly. Children who had special needs were sent to the special needs school. Everyone spoke English and we walked to school in most cases. If the school got over crowded, the citizens just built another small neighborhood school building.

There were many churches in my little town. Almost everyone went to one or the other. I attended two churches as my mother and father were of different faiths. Us kids traded off going to each church. In the summer when we were not working in the fields as most kids did then, we would go to vocational bible school. The one we went to was one that another kid in the neighborhood went to and we enjoyed going there. People did not seem to be so segregated and separated by the building they went into. God was God and he loved us no matter which building we went into.

My little town is now about 40 thousand people. “Main” street is dilapidated and run down. The stores are either empty or are junk (antique) stores. The city fathers try to encourage new business to locate downtown, but with every family having 2 to 3 cars, if everyone were to go downtown there would be no place to park.

There are shopping malls, strip malls and every kind of big box outlet you can think of. Traffic on main street is just awful and you can sit for a long time trying to get down "Main" to get to one of the malls. The town looks like one large used car lot with every brand you can think of. Everyone is in a hurry and the few people you see on the street have a phone up to their head or are text messaging each other.

The little shops and stores are all gone. There is little personal contact with the people working in the malls. Just get what you want, swipe your credit card and go home and play a video game or watch pro sports on your 60 inch hi-def TV. Kids don’t work or play, unless the interact with some caned game. We have kid here in our neighborhood now and they only time I see them outside even on nice days is when they are waiting to get on the bus to go to school.

I miss my little quiet town….

My understanding of GOD

I have talked a lot about my political and social philosophy. Both of these subjects can bring forward strong feelings from the reader. As ever, I do not ask you to agree with me, just read and if you have any other views please leave them on the place for comments on the blog or via direct email to me. I really appreciate it.

To live my particular religious flavor, so to speak, is very hard. My time, money and daily efforts are spent actively practicing my faith. To me it is a way of life and I really take seriously the phrase “do unto others as you want others to do unto you.” I do not push my denomination on anyone nor do I publicly advertise it. If you were in my home and asked me about it, I would gladly share with you. However, my intent, contrary to what many feel, is appropriate is to live and practice my religion in such a way as to be an example so that others may want to know and simulate my example.

I am defiantly not without sin. I have done many things that I am ashamed of and if I could do them over again, I would hope I would do them better. To anyone I have wronged or offended in the past I am truly sorry and I offer my apology. However there are people who I feel have offended me and I will gladly forgive them but first they must offer their apology to me. Not for my welfare but for what I see as their eternal progression and road to repentance.

Basically I believe, and these things may be in contradiction to my particular denomination, the following points.

There is a God ---- Heavenly Father--- Supreme Being --- or what ever you want to call him.

Everyone is born with a belief in God. Oh how about all those atheists or agnostics etc.? Well let me explain. If you believe in God as is described in your particular scripture and organizational denomination, that is how you understand God to be and you can call him by what ever name you like. Including Allah. If you believe that God is a myth and only superstition, and there is and never was such a thing well that is fine, but you still have a God that you are staking everything on and lets call him NoGod.

So if those who believe in the traditional God are correct when they die, if there is no God well I guess that is it. If there IS a God they will be rewarded for their faith. Now those who do not believe and die. If there is no God all is well, BUT if there is a God you are in deep doo-doo. One of the basic sins in all religions is the sin of denial of God….Look it up. So would it not be smarter to at least believe with reservations? I think so. So I still maintain that everyone has a God, either the traditional one or the modern NoGod.

Another point I believe in is, that even if you do not believe everything your religion preaches, would not, or is not, your life, and how you lead it, better than what it would have been if you had no moral training, standards at all? I know the life I was leading before I adopted my faith was on a very destructive path and honestly I feel I would not have been alive today and I am certain I would have not been married all these years to the same woman.

Unfortunately in today’s world religion and modern life are at odds with each other in many ways. The practice of most religions takes time and effort. You got to get out of bed and go to church or wherever you go for your organization. Many of us have so little free time and to sacrifice part of a day, or if you practice the principle of keeping the Sabbath Day holly it is all day. For many it is more than they can do. It is not that they do not believe, they are just running as fast as they can. They will get into their religion when they are old before they die…right!!!!!

Also for many and I think the young in particular, their life style tends to put them at odds with what they have been taught by religion and the root of the problem for them is the big G word and that is GUILT. Nobody likes to feel guilty. We grow up into adults and we do not want mommy, daddy or God telling us that what we are doing is wrong. So we don’t go to church and justify our actions to ourselves and others and say we are not religious. But deep down many know they are really fooling themselves and if they had the strength of character they would change their lives.

Many have participated in their particular religion in the past have felt hurt or wronged by what went on in the past. Maybe a clergy, or other member or some event has done something to cause this hurt. People in religions are human and thus make mistakes and commit sins. Condemning religion because of the actions of other people is very destructive and hurtful to mostly ones self. It is not religions fault but the fault of people in religion. Many times these hurt people stop attending church, and that is a loss to them. Most religions teach repentance and forgiveness and in my belief I feel we should go that path before giving up.

Many folks get caught up on the scientific and religious contradictions in today’s world. In the statement to follow I want to say that my particular denomination is at odds with my personal belief. There is the contradiction between creationism and the big bang theory. The smart crowed knows with no room for wiggle that the world was created by some scientific principle and that all on earth have evolved from that point and we continue to evolve. The earth is much older than what the scriptures say and that cavemen and dinosaurs prove that there were creatures on the earth much older than what is taught by religion.

Let me put what I believe, not my religion, believes here. The stories of creation in the old testament were past down from early times by way of mouth and then later put to paper. They were not really written by Moses and are not literal. They are stories meant to illustrate how man understood the process of creation when their scientific knowledge was not sufficient to understand what had happened. They have no concept of time, as we still don’t understand the difference of what I call God’s day and what we call a day. I believe that God’s day in our time may be millions of years or billions of years.

As all things on earth are done, they are done in an organized and defined way. No clapping of hands or thunder but in a scientific and specific organized method as all things on this earth are done now. Erosion, earth quakes, volcanoes, storms, and many other things that are in place that change or evolve our world in a normal explainable way.

God is not that mysterious, and he wants us to know and understand his ways. Science is his way of allowing us to discover how he did what he did. Many scientists feel they will be ridiculed by their friends if they slant to the religious side, so they go along with the mainstream. They ignore the things they can not understand or explain away in scientific methods. Yet they have seen so many things happen that the doubt lingers.


One of my professors said it best and I remember it well as I was studying to be an MD. Neither creationism or evolution can be proved as a law. They are theories and you should never assume they are cast in concrete.