I have a funny story, not related to the present-day nightmare(s):

[PCIntern]

I want to preface this by saying that my mother of blessed memory, who worked tirelessly at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard during the War and was a great patriot, was one of those individuals who was outraged that a country of this wealth and resources had starvation, slums, disease, and lack of universal medical care. She was a firm believer in hard work for those capable of such but fully understood the limitations which required many to be on assistance for both economic and humanitarian reasons. She also came to grips with the notion that capitalism was here to stay and the main job of the wealthy was to maintain that wealth at almost any cost.

I have many many tales to tell, but the funniest, in its own way follows:


After an adult lifetime which consisted of young widowhood following the birth of my half-brother, and a disastrous marriage to my father coupled with low-paying jobs, repossessed cars, foreclosure on the very modest house in which we lived among other financial horrors, we finally worked out a plan which gave her a retirement in a modest four-small-bedroom home at the Jersey Shore, her lifelong dream was to live on the ocean and beach, and autonomy to have a life without acute, everyday financial worry. I’ll leave the complexities out of it but it was a dream come true.

So after I got her ensconced in the house, I took her out to a nice dinner and said, “Now, with your luck, the Commies will take over and place three families in the house since it’s way too large for just one person!”

She couldn’t stop laughing and would bring it up for years as an example of my “ironic humor”.

I have another story I’ll post sometime about my mom and dad concerning the liberal movement in the 1930’s which you younger folk I’m certain are unaware unless you had a family of similar political composition.