It ain't over until the fat cat sings
My
first thought would be the
light bulb. I remember how dark it was when I was a little boy when my
grandfather could not get the Model T engine electrical generator started at the
camp.
What do you think was the best and smartest invention?
My
first thought would be the
light bulb. I remember how dark it was when I was a little boy when my
grandfather could not get the Model T engine electrical generator started at the
camp.
How do it know? I would not think of going deer hunting without mine.
Then there is paper. I remember in grammar school at Lida Benton, MRS Irby
teaching about Honest Abe Lincoln
writing
on a shovel by lamp light.
How about indoor plumbing, I remember again at the camp using a flash light to
go out to the outhouse and afraid a snake may bite my rear end. I remember
taking a cold bath in the creek. 
Air conditioners were a great invention. When I was a kid in the early 1950s, we
did not know what an air conditioner was. We had a shotgun house at
713 Nichols Ave, Monroe LA. We had an attic fan and slept with all the
windows open. I know the temperature in the summer must have hovered close to
100 degrees, but I don’t remember it getting all that hot inside. Of course we
spent all day
outside
playing baseball or football or playing in our cardboard forts. I wrote all
about my childhood in my novel
Blue Bayou Days.
When we lost power in Baton Rouge during
Hurricane Andrew,
there were no air conditioners, no computers, and no TV. We lived
212 Linda AVE, Baton Rouge, LA near Independence Park. All the neighbors had
deer and fish in their freezer. We had outdoor cook outs and I met people that I
had never seen even though they lived 10 years on the same small street. I have
not seen most of them since the front porch light came on after 2 weeks.
Then
there is the television, the boob tube. We got our first to watch
Rocky Marciano Box. Daddy forgot to
get an antenna and all we saw was snow. We had one channel
8 KNOE, and then
Chanel 10 KTVE came out. TV went off at
10PM. A friend fell asleep and froze to death. The snow on the TV killed him.
Now we have Dish Network with 600 channels of nothing to watch.
What about the telephone? Our first phone was a party line. You could pick up and hear all the gossip. I sometimes took the phone out to the Ouachita River and put the wires into the water and shocked the catfish to the surface. "Hello, is this MR Catfish?" "Nope you got the game warden." "Sorry wrong number." It worked almost as good as dynamite.
Later my brother and parents had 10 phones in their houses, even in the
bathroom. What about the cell phone? I rebelled for years and refused to get
one. The first portable phone was as big as a car. At Louisiana DEQ we had the
same Motorola radio the State Police used. Mine had a phone, but it used radio
waves to transmit so everyone could hear your conversations. "Hello honey, I
will be late getting home. I have an inspection to do." "Where in the hell
are you?"I accidentally sat on my mike one time and drove a hundred miles with
Merle and Hank blasting the airways. When I got out at the 7/11 to get some
coffee, I heard all the complaints, what the hell was that? To this day I have
never admitted it was me, and I will deny it to my grave. Then I started this
business in 2001 and am paying for 9 cell phones. Trouble is I keep losing mine
or drop it in the river fishing or down the commode. I forget to charge it up,
forget to take it with me. All the employees know to call Angie because I never
answer mine. All they get is my imitation
Forrest Gump Box of Chocolates.
I got Forrest down pat.
What about the computer- A thousand dollar deck of cards? I used a computer at
Louisiana DEQ to keep track
of smoke school mailing lists and certifications. I used it but had to get a
friend to turn it on and turn it off. Then I got the internet and life has never
been the same since. I would have never done this business
www.smokeschool.net without the
internet web page and Google maps and GPS to get me there. I love the simple
life.
(Mac McAnally) Simple life is the life for me A man and a wife and a family And the Lord up above who knows I'm tryin' To live a simple life in a difficult time. I used to sit around fussin' at the phone all day Windin' up alone and it'd make me say Never again will I be that way Never again will I be that way. 'Cause a simple life is the life for me A man and a wife and a family The Lord up above he knows I'm tryin' To live a simple life in a difficult time. --- Instrumental --- Well, I work six days and I rest for one 'Cause the ol' rat race ain't never been won And I sit back and I watch 'em run I kick on back and I watch 'em run. 'Cause the simple life is the life for me A man and a wife and a family The Lord up above who knows I'm tryin' To live a simple life in a difficult time. Simple life in a difficult time. --- Instrumental --- The simple life is the life for me A man and a wife and a family And the Lord up above who knows I'm tryin' To live a simple life in a difficult time. The simple life is the life for me A man and a wife and a family And the Lord up above who knows I'm tryin'. To live a simple life in a difficult time. The simple life is the life for me A steak and a knife and a glass of tea The Lord up above he knows I'm tryin' To live a simple life in a difficult time...
more smoke school stories
It ain't over until the fat cat sings
