Wit, widsom of Paul Harvey endure for years

A week ago we mentioned the Betterhalf and I better begin preparing for being great grandparents to twin girls next spring. However, this prospect is also a signal to not spoil the only girls that could dot our clan.
Thank goodness Paul Harvey in a newspaper column written over 20 years ago gave us some guidelines for us when he said, “We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren (also great-grandchildren), I’d like better.” He continued:
“I’d really like them to know about hand-me-down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches, I really would. 
 I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated. I hope you learn to make your own bed. And I really hope no one gives you a brand new car when you’re 16.
It will be good if at least one time you see puppies being born and a dog put to sleep. I hope you have to share a bedroom with your sister and it’s all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room. But when she wants to crawl under the covers with you because she’s scared, I hope you let her. 
I hope you have to walk up hill  to school with your friends that you live in a town where you can do it safely. On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don’t ask your driver to drop you off two blocks away so you won’t be seen riding with someone as cool as your mom.
I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books. When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.
I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your great grandpa and go fishing with him.
I hope when you talk back to your mom or dad that you learn what ivory soap tastes like . . . and that they hug and kiss you at Christmas time when you give them a plaster mold of your hand.
These things I wish for you -- tough times, disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me it’s the only way to appreciate life. Written with a pen and sealed with a kiss. . . I’m here for you.”
   We say “Thanks, Paul Harvey.
RL Furse  is publisher emeritus of the News-Register