Pickles by Brian Crane for May 04, 2014

I would’ve thought Nelson to be eight or ten.

And sometimes he still acts like he’s eightand a half.

It gets late early this time of year, eh Earl?

It was a different time…no seat belts, no special car seats, no pull along bicycle carts, no jogging strollers..it is a wonder we survived!

My Dad said stuff exactly like that…I remember him measuring me,when I was 4 foot something…I said that sounded pretty tall, but he told me no, cos when he was my height he was a whole head taller…

I puzzled over that for ages.

Not everyone did survive… but these who didn’t aren’t commenting on gocomics, for some reason.

My friend used to ride her 4 year old brother on the package seat behind her seat on the bike…with her mom’s permission. He was told only to “hold on”: Another friend rode her little sister on her bike’s handlebars. Nobody thought anything of it. Actually, I’ve wondered about those bike helmets. I never fell on my head but scraped my knees and elbows a lot along with ripping up sleeves and pant legs.

In snow…year round.

I played on farm equipment when I was a kid. Got a few stitches, but no broken bones or worse.

I got to play ‘mechanic’ with my dad … he was always having to fix something on a car. Also got to play Eskimo in winter … was a place where BIG snow drifts formed. We’d get a refrigerator carton (they came wrapped in cardboard then) and dig out a place in the drift and put the carton inside.It was my mom who went 5 mile to school on skis .. uphill, both ways.

I walked12 miles to school and back … Uphill both ways.

When I graduated from high school in 1962, my husband and I owned a house and two cars within a year. Most of the men who graduated with my class had similar paying jobs right out of high school. I didn’t work, didn’t need to. Most women didn’t, and those that did actually chose to work. Today, it’s not a choice for most families, and when those families break up, everyone is in poverty. When I did decide to go back to college, I paid $79 tuition for 15-18 hours of credit at SIU Edwardsville and we paid a $20 fee to rent whichever books we needed. Everyone could go to college, paying for it with a part time job. Since then American productivity has skyrocketed. But, Middle Class people don’t have anywhere near the advantages we did. And, with the cost of college, it’s darn near impossible to get a start, you already owe the cost of a house before you graduate college, and buying one right out of high school is an impossible dream. So if anyone in my generation tells you that we were deprived without microwaves and computers, you should tell them they are full of it.

That horse is just too cute.

xxx

When I was 8 I was hit by a car while riding my bike. I went over the top of the car and landed behind him. Fortunately no bones were broken, but I think I had a bit of a concussion. I NEVER question the need for bike helmets.

“One time he said ‘Steven, how old are you?’ I said ’I’m five.’ He said, ‘When I was your age, I was six.’ Then he cackled madly and threw a spoon against the window.”— Steven Wright, “My Grandfather,” from the album “I Still Have a Pony” (2007)

I love the relationship between Nelson and Earl