Lucky and Blessed

There is not enough time or ink to list all the ways God has blessed me. Let me just touch on the very fact that I beat many odds and should not be living at age 74. I explain:

Through the years, I ate much cheese and tuna fish from a can. My tuna-fish sandwich with mayo (school lunch) sat in my hot metal-locker from 7:30 A.M. until noon many days.  As a young boy, I went barefoot wading and tubed for catfish in water moccasin infested lakes and I ate crawdads from creeks with suspect sewage. My mother told me that as a baby, I slept on my tummy in cribs covered with lead-base paint. I am sure the child proof medicine bottles were unheard.

My adolescent years saw me hitchhiking or riding my bike throughout the 80 thousand East St. Louis residents in a total state of denial that any harm could come to a 12-year old city boy. Those little league baseball teams had tryouts and some kids did not make the team; they dealt with the disappointment...imagine that. I don't remember but I am sure  that I stood in the front seat of my parents' auto unrestrained; I do recall standing in the back of dad's pickup truck. If thirsty enough, I disregarded mother's advice 'not to put my mouth on the public ball diamond fountain.' I have eaten tons of white bread, too many cup cakes, enough sugar drinks to float the Queen Mary, real butter and a pig-farm of fried bacon. The amazing aspect of this life style left me skinny because I was one 'active' boy in perpetual motion.

As a young boy, I left the house in summer months at about 9 A.M. and returned for the supper hour. My mother could not contact me during the day; no one could possibly know my whereabouts. I  did not have sophisticated toys but entertained myself with 'homemade' spinner games and board games.

I never heard of lawsuits but I did have firsthand information about the omnipotence of the law, teachers and clergy. I also knew that a belt could be used for something other than 'holding' up my father's trousers.

The aforementioned reminiscences is not a brag or boast. They are occurrences, which defy seventy-four years.