Now this type of day is what I have been waiting for. A bit of breeze, low humidity and low temps. The mosquitoes didn’t get the news flash that they could have the day off. My lawnmower didn’t let me down. We may have grunted a bit as the ground is just like a sponge. The front yard offered up three full bags of clippings. This surely must be the tail end of push, push, push. Here I am all cleaned up and Dennis is still out in the northeast part of the acre on the rider mower. This will be a good grill cheese and tomato soup supper night.
Something about this day brought back a memory from times gone by. It was this time of the year many years ago that the kid’s dad, Orlin, announced the television was on the blink. Oh my gosh, Downtown South Branch and all it didn’t have to offer and now . . . no television. Though all we could get for reception was Channel 12 – WCCO, it was still the glow of the tube and entertainment. With no fluid funds to take it to Truman for the repair shop, the television set became a rather large knick-nack.
School had just started with a fair amount of daylight in the early evenings. Kevin found things to do in his make-shift tool shed. It was a concrete block building that had once been a chicken house. Carrie spent more time on the piano. She tried out different recipes that made tasty suppers by the time Orlin and I got home from work. Quiet times in their bedrooms for schoolwork served them well. There was still a fair amount of yard work for all of us, as we were the grounds keepers for the next door church, the cemetery and the parochial school grounds. Fall turned into the early stages of winter. I am not sure how it was revealed to the kids when the television was re-instated after it had been taken to Truman for a new picture tube. The kids didn’t even complain when ole Chuck Pesket was the man of the hour for news or the host of the John Deere Band Wagon. The kids kept on with some of the things that had kept them occupied during that “black out.” It was a good thing.
If my memory serves me, Orlin had pulled the “television is broken” one time when we lived in Madelia. The television set was actually put into a closet. After a lengthy spell in the closet, Orlin and I came home from being out and about and the kids met us at the door. Oh my gosh! “We just tried plugging it in to see what would happen and it worked!” Poor ole Dad, it’s hard to pull something past kids that have inquiring minds. The wonderful thing is that Carrie and Kevin did have, and still do have, inquiring minds to continue broadening their horizons for themselves and their families. Now that’s a good thing.