\nA few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger
\n\twho was new to our small town. From the beginning,
\n\tDad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer
\n\tand soon invited him to live with our family. The
\n\tstranger was quickly accepted and was around
\n\tfrom then on. <\/p>\n
\tAs I grew up, I never questioned his place in my
\n\tfamily. In my young mind, he had a special niche.
\n\tMy parents were complementary instructors: Mom
\n\ttaught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey.
\n\tBut the stranger… he was our storyteller. He would
\n\tkeep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures,
\n\tmysteries and comedies.<\/p>\n
\n\tIf I wanted to know anything about politics, history
\n\tor science, he always knew the answers about the past,
\n\tunderstood the present and even seemed able to predict
\n\tthe future! He took my family to the first major league
\n\tball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The
\n\tstranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn’t seem
\n\tto mind. <\/p>\n
\tSometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of
\n\tus were shushing each other to listen to what he had to
\n\tsay, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet.
\n\t(I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave.) <\/p>\n
\tDad ruled our household with certain moral convictions,
\n\tbut the stranger never felt obligated to honor them.
\n\tProfanity, for example, was not allowed in our home – not
\n\tfrom us, our friends or any visitors. Our long time visitor,
\n\thowever, got away with four-letter words that burned my
\n\tears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush.<\/p>\n
\tMy Dad didn’t permit the liberal use of alcohol but the
\n\tstranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis. He made
\n\tcigarettes look cool, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished. <\/p>\n
\tHe talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments
\n\twere sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally
\n\tembarrassing.. <\/p>\n
\tI now know that my early concepts about relationships were
\n\tinfluenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he
\n\topposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked
\n\t… And NEVER asked to leave. <\/p>\n
\tMore than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved
\n\tin with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly
\n\tas fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into
\n\tmy parents’ den today, you would still find him sitting over
\n\tin his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and
\n\twatch him draw his pictures.<\/p>\n
\tHis name?…. We just call him ‘TV’
\n\tHe has a wife now….we call her ‘Computer.’
\n\tTheir first child is ‘Cell Phone’
\n\tSecond child ‘I Pod’
\n\tAnd JUST BORN THIS YEAR WAS a Grandchild: IPAD<\/p>\n
Posted by:<\/strong> Dr Crapology on June 6, 2014, 11:38 am<\/p>\n \tDoc<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coffee-chat-lounge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}