I started my evening getting an estimate for work on the house, scheduling calendar events, organizing, and chatting on the phone. A relative called to say that my son was in the paper. We were surprised as it was a repeat event from two years ago.
I was anxious to get a copy of the paper and went to get in my vehicle when I spied my neighbor sitting on his front porch. I just knew he'd give us the article and always enjoyed chatting with him and his wife, so I walked on over for a visit.
He is 91 years old and she is 94 years old. I ended up spending hours there, but totally enjoyed my time spent with them. I've gotten to know them over the past 22 years with many hours sitting on their front porch with them chatting away.
Today's conversation brought many interesting stories and incite.
The best incite that stood out was when he shared that when he was young, a certain man's father always had the same bit of wisdom for him.
"If you have weight on your shoulders, then you'd better get busy. If you've got to wait on money, then that's just it."
He explained that if he had to wait on money, he'd be waiting a very long time. It was also a play on the words weight/wait.
To me, I can relate to feeling weight on my shoulders and stress bearing down on me and I just feel like I need a break and want to quit! However, this quote says to me that it is a blessing to bear a weight because it gives me an opportunity to get busy and get things done. Just sitting around waiting for the money to be handed to me would be a boring life and not so much of a blessing.
He shared that most people are always against the rich people being so rich, but that he saw it as the rich people provided the jobs for the rest of the people, so we needed them.
I also learned of the true meaning of "spring chicken." She teased about being a spring chicken. I always thought of a spring chicken as someone that bounced about like a spring (hopped about like a chicken) or, in other words, someone who was full of life and energy. It can also mean a young or inexperienced person. The looks in their eyes to each other as they toyed with the phrase had me wondering what they thought it meant. He did indicated to her that he never thought she was a spring chicken, which could have meant that he never thought she was inexperience (in you know what).
However, the discussion lead to sharing of how before refrigerators they had to eat pig in the fall in winter as it could be butchered and salted to last. However, in the Spring, they would save some of the eggs that they would normally eat in the winter and incubate them to raise 100's of Spring chickens. They talked about what an enjoyment it was after a long winter of rough pig meat to eat a soft juicy piece of meat. It was a lot of work to raise the chickens and take them to market.
There was a story of one couple who didn't own any coups and so they tied the chickens legs and put them in between the seats of the vehicle. Stacked up in such a way many did not get enough air and died on the way to the market. The couple felt a huge loss as the sale of those chickens were very important to their budget. He stated that in the future years, he offered to take his coups and get the chickens to market for the couple. People helping people--that's the way life should be.
I am sometimes discouraged when I see our youth now-a-days show boredom while listening to our elders. I enjoyed listening to them as it was as if I was peeking into the past. I wanted to get a recorder and transcribe it all down. I had SO much to do tonight, but not getting it done was well worth the time I spent listening to some very wise people.
It was a double blessing. Not only did I gain some incite, but they gained some company in their loneliness and felt good because someone was interested in what they had to say. Warm fuzzies abound!
5/29/2008