Old Jack

“Jack be nimble. Jack be quick,” and Jack was very nimble and extremely quick... nimble and quick enough in fact to make it to the top of the Nursery Rhyme Pop Charts season after season, but today Jack finds himself reduced to jumping over candlesticks at PartyLite® Candle Parties in and around Plymouth, Massachusetts on weekends just to make ends meet. You see kids, superstars like Jack didn’t make the kind of coin that celebrities make these days. Even in his prime, when Jack wasn’t jumping candlesticks before an adoring public, he was working the swing-shift at a local candle factory to support his family. This was back when professional baseball players had to take up side jobs during the offseason to pay the rent. Your grandfather can tell you all about it. But back to Jack: As poor ol’ Jack performs today at candle parties for ladies yelling “jump over the peach one Jack, jump over the peach one!" all I can say is that life isn’t fair, especially as we grow older. Some of us who were great in our prime don’t look like much in our later years, so as you see Jack jump (and sometimes miss) and as you walk past that old person on the street, give them a smile and a little extra respect, because once upon a time they were great too… and truth be told, they probably still are.

Old Screen Doors and Telephones

Gosh, I miss the soothing sound of a rotary telephone, and the way it used to take twice as long to dial SK9-9978 as it did to dial SK2-1312. And I miss saying Skyline instead of SK, and I miss saying SK instead of 75 …and if none of this makes any sense to you, you’ve probably never heard the sound of a wood screen door slamming either. What a shame. You grew up in a world of aluminum screen doors with hydraulic screen door closers. For crying out loud, you can’t even slam one of those damn things! …and don’t even get me started on TV dials, and radio knobs!!