-
Butch Furse
Looking back we had the belief our kids needed to help at the newspaper and be introduced to a few working chores around the plant and at the same time earn their own spending money. Recalling those earlier years, we remember our young sons were introduced to the work ethic by clean-up duties of emptying wastebaskets, sweeping, cleaning the men’s rest room and inserting newspaper sections.
We recall telling our boys they had to start from the “bottom up.”
We did not realize that our youngest had taken us literality until we overheard him telling one of his friends he could not help at the newspaper until he started by cleaning the men’s rest room. Our youngest had misinterpreted “bottom up” as part of the human anatomy instead meaning the lowly basis of a beginning job.
Maybe that might have been the reason he never had any interest in becoming a newspaper man.
***
We came across a list of little instructions for enjoying a smoother life. The list:
Watch a sunrise at least once a year. Strive for excellence, not perfection. Leave the toilet seat in the down position. Compliment three people every day. Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures. Buy whatever kids are selling on the card tables in their front yard. Make new friends but cherish the old ones. Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation. Call your mother. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know. Leave everything a little better than what you found it. Use the good silver. Never refuse homemade brownies.
***
The Betterhalf and I spent Christmas with just the two of us. In the quietness of the home Christmas Eve she said, “Do you realize 60 years ago our first Christmas was just the two of us as a married couple and tonight it is again, “Just the two of us.”
And I replied, “You know, this quietness isn’t all bad.”
***
Well, if everything goes right we’re going to be around to start the new year of 2021. While the year of 2020 is nearly over, it will certainly be one to be remembered. Hopefully 2021 will be better and we realize, “Happiness is good health and a bad memory”.
RL Furse is publisher emeritus of the News-Register
