I was born on a dirt road

 I was born on a dirt road in a house my father built in small town America. Well actually I was ‘born’ in Englewood Hospital but my earliest memory was walking to the big rock at the edge of our property, under the apple tree and out into the dirt road where I met my first friends Brucy Randolph and Arty Lloyd. I memorized my address; 38 Glenwood Avenue, Demarest, NJ. Which I knew by heart. We all grew up watching 3 channels on a black and white TV that ended every night playing the National Anthem. We all watched and compared notes on our favorite Saturday morning shows like Roy Roger’s, Lassie, Black Beauty and My Friend Flicka. The News came on every night at 6 O’clock. Each channel had their own; Walter Cronkite on CBS, Huntley Brinkley on NBC, ABC had somebody but it really didn’t matter it was just ‘the news’ for a half an hour until the good shows came came back on. Winky Dink and You, the Mickey Mouse Club, Bonanza. Don’t quote me on the times, these are just a few ‘shows’ I remember and yes, Howdy Doodee with Buffalo Bob, Chief Thunder Thud and Princess Summer Fall Winter Spring. We went to school every morning. I pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Superman was my hero fighting for Truth, Justice and the American way. Someone would read a verse from the Bible and settled in until 3 O’clock and freedom. I went to bed saying now I lay me down to sleep and God Bless Everybody in the Whole Wide World. Every night we would say our prayers and my sister Linda and I would join in a call and respond with our Mom and Dad saying ‘See, You, In, The, Mor, Ning!” We always felt safe and warm in our cozy little home on Glenwood. I knew every house and every neighbor from Tommy O’mara, Danny Mullins, the Scanlons, the Randolph’s, Lloyd’s, the Morisons - that we called nosey, Susie Shute, the Wavpotiches, Zanusies and more… I believed that Columbus discovered America and that George Washington never told a lie. I loved America and waved the flag at parades especially when my uncle on the fire truck with his black and white Dalmatian and Grandpop, the towns chief of police, marched by. When I graduated from high school I was afraid to go to Viet Nam and was fortunate enough to go to college. I wanted to get a job where I could help people. When I showed up in South Carolina I got a job at the School for the Deaf and the Blind. I met the most beautiful girl I had ever seen and we fell in love. I became an instant dad and jumped at the chance to do my best. I worked that summer in construction, bought a house we could barely afford, got a second job in a record store, then Sears and teaching at tech using my computer geek skills. We pawned my little black and white TV for 25 bucks to get through the weekends. I played golf but put money into a 401k rather than a golf club. My father had worked so hard all of his life and told me I was in for a ‘rude awakening’. It’s wasn’t so rude but I started waking up to reality and started to understand the wisdom of his words. We had a beautiful little girl. We always believed that she could grow up to be whatever she wanted to be. Her brother Eric took his own life. Boy Scouts and baseball were not enough to save him from himself. He carried a burden, perhaps from the divorce, that proved too much to bear and the burden of that loss still haunts me today. Nonetheless we have forged on together and together we have achieved more than we ever imagined we would. Two TV’s, two cars and a house we call our own. We conquered debts thanks to Dad and my sister Linda and we built up our savings. Our daughter has achieved more than either one or even both of us put together. She is beautiful and brilliant and a consummate professional. She married a man with similar charms and together they have a home, two beautiful boys and two dogs they call a family.

In the meantime, what has happened to America? We went through a Civil War over 100 years ago. I considered that fascinating but ancient history. We went through the civil rights movement where the rights of women and races were championed. We built a beautiful and wonderful life in a beautiful and wonderful nation but…

What is happening to America? We appear to be tearing ourselves apart. It’s not the north and the south it’s neighbor against neighbor, friend vs friend and family members divided among themselves. It Fox News and the Liberal media that I believe is defining and dividing and pushing us into taking sides. We just suffered and endured a pandemic. Medical science asked us to wear a mask and wash our hands. Then they offered up a preventative cure with a modern vaccine but rather than join in a common cause we found another way to divide against each other. We allowed a man into office even with a minority vote but when he lost by enough to leave office he lied and lied and divided us yet again. I sit here tonight wring these words in fear and concerns that everything we know and love and worked for could be cast asunder because of this cancer of hate and greed that consumes us. We have a minority party that appears to rather destroy our economy than approve raising the debt ceiling that has been raised 69 times since 1965.