YOUTH IS WASTED ON THE YOUNG

Life is odd. Daddy used to always say that youth is wasted on the young. I did not always know exactly what he meant. Now at 62 I think I know. When I grew up in Monroe Louisiana in the early 1950s we had 2 channels on the TV and they both went off the air at 10PM. “It is 10 o’clock, do you know where your children are?” They played the National Anthem- José can you see, and then there was snow. A friend of mine fell asleep watching TV and the snow killed him. He froze to death. There was a routine: School, Thanksgiving, Christmas, baseball, fishing, and hunting. My parents were always there, so was my kid brother Ricky and all of my friends in the neighborhood and at school. We did not know what drugs were and we never saw a drunk. You think this is life and life will always be exactly like this. Grow up, get married, have kids, and live happily ever after. You think the people you know will always be here. My cousin Jane Harp lives in Minden Louisiana. She is a little younger than me. She now lives 2 houses down from where she was born. Jane got married just after high school and she is still married to the same person. I envy her. Perhaps this is the way God intended life to be.

I managed to graduate from Neville High School in 1966. I left Monroe in May 1969 after dropping out of Northeast Louisiana University. My friends and I were into drinking beer, Falstaff and a lot of it.   Daddy was about to retire from the Monroe Police and he knew that he would not be around to bail me out of trouble. He put out an APB on my 57 Chevy. I got stopped 27 times in a week. There was a rusted out hole in the back seat floor. When the red-light came on in the rearview mirror, we dropped the beer cans through the hole. When Emit Otwell, Herby Otwell’s Daddy, stopped me the last time, he said your daddy is going to retire. We have your number. I would think about getting out of town. My grades were not very good, because I forgot to go to class. I was about to lose my draft college deferment, because my school probation was about to expire. The Vietnam War was in full swing. I saw Walter Cronkite and the body bags on TV every afternoon. I decided the safest place was in the US Air Force, so I went to Shreveport and signed on the dotted line for the whole 9 yards. Nothing has been the same ever since.

I went from seeing my family every day to seeing them twice a year while I was on leave. I spent some time in San Antonio, Champaign Illinois, Sacramento, Altus Oklahoma, Alconbury England, Iceland, Greenland, and finally in Fort Walton Beach Florida. My parents, brother, in-laws outlaws, cousins, uncles, and aunts all came to see us in Florida. I served in the air force for 13 years and decided to get out when Daddy had his second heart attack in 1983, so I could get to know him before he died. I spent a year on unemployment and food stamps, living in Daddy’s fishing camp on the mill pond in Clarks Louisiana. I had a part time job teaching school for Caldwell Parish High School- $50 a day cash. Who would a thunk it. Daddy’s friends Governors John McKeithen and Edwin Edwards helped get me a job with the Louisiana DEQ in Baton Rouge in 1984 and I worked there until I retired in September 9/11. I started Whitlow Smoke School Nation at this time. In 2002 we moved the home office of our nationwide business to Catherine’s home town of Washington Indiana. By 2007 I was remarried to Angie and we moved back home to West Monroe.

My cousin Jane Harp lives in Minden Louisiana. She is a little younger than me. She now lives 2 houses down from where she was born. Jane got married just after high school and she is still married to the same person. I envy her. Perhaps this is the way God intended life to be. I on the other hand have lived all over and been married to 4 different women and helped raise 8 children. My latest ex-wife Catherine made me feel a little better about myself. She said, "You can be charming. You have made 4 women fall in love with you, pack up everything and follow you anywhere." I wish things could have been different. But this is the way it ended up. Nothing is the same as when I grew up. Both of my parents have passed away and I can’t find any of my old friends. Thanksgiving has just past by. I am very thankful for what we have. Thank you good Lord for today. Thank you for tomorrow, please do a better of helping me find your path. And that is life from Lake Whitlow be gone. Where all the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all of the children are above average.