It is a chilly, rainy day. I love it! My kind of weather. Cool weather suits me. Rain is soothing to the soul. Good nap weather. A good day to pause and reflect. A time to remember who you are. A time for a sense of place.

Southern Illinois is a place of wide vistas, hills, and valleys. A glacier stopped in Carbondale. We are not flat like much of Illinois. A region of hamlets, villages, and small towns. I told a colleague years ago that we men of Southern Illinois all carry a pocket knife. We played outside as kids until the street lights came on. No internet, no cell phones, three stations on the TV, and two of them were snowy. We made our own fun, and being a single child, I especially did so. Having a BB Gun was a big deal. Ralphie understood this in A Christmas Story. The Orpheum was miraculous, and the Pool Hall was mysterious. Everyone reads books. Neva J read a book or two a month. She belonged to the book-of-the-month club. We enjoyed our music on vinyl records. I belonged to the Columbia Record Club.

Our eyes have gotten heavy. What passed for instruction and crimes has grown passe. Once we backed out, the police and those who are paid to protect us. Now we free police beaters and soon will give them money for their trouble. We pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all. We placed our hands over our hearts. It was a big deal. We believed what our President told us. Fifty thousand men died in Vietnam.

Congress took its job seriously. I watched the entire Watergate hearings, which were televised. The telecast was fascinating. Both political parties agreed that President Nixon had to go. We were awake!

We enjoy the freedoms that we fought and died for. The United States was the beacon of freedom for the world. The oppressed of nations came to us for succor and sanctuary. It seems funny to be bypassed by China. Not funny ha ha…funny strange.

When we wanted to look up something, we went to the dictionary or the World Book Encyclopedia. Knowledge was not quick; it was researched. No AI to write our school papers. Ralphie received a C+ for his Red Ryder BB Gun Thesis, but it was all his. University taught me the miracle of thinking for myself. Never take at face value what a leader is telling you. Why are they saying what they are saying? Who gains by their pronouncements, who loses?