As I sit and watch the gentle beauty of the snow falling on the carpet of white out my front window this thought came to my mind.
We old folks, long for many things from the past and I am no different then they.
But, the one thing that comes to my mind at this time in my life, is wishing we were back when we worried far less, if at all, on a daily basis about being robbed.
Nowadays, it seems that we have to worry about identity theft, people e-mailing for phony money scams, major companies, in their fine-print documents, charging outlandish fees and penalty for late charges or discontinuing their services and changing interest rates at will.
This, along with offering new high-tech programs for free, then, after we change over from the old ways, begin to add ever climbing and more expensive costs for services.
They build cars that are built by robots, cheaper labor, but doesn”t decrease the sticker price and will not run without a micro-chip, that costs thousands of dollars to replace and install, add gadgets that have nothing to do with transportation and sell them to us for the cost of a house.
Yet, can”t build a working man”s vehicle that gets any better gas mileage than a mile or two every five years.
I won”t go into all the scams out there to cheat the elderly these days either.
Forcing everyone to have a high-interest credit card, at least if you travel and want to rent a motel room.
Bottom line, a person could spend all day now, dodging all those robbers and crooks that we now have deal with these days.
Think it might be better to go back to hiding our funds between the mattresses, as at least you would get to see the faces of those robbing you. I long for the days that, when you paid cash, you were treated with respect, not like your un-American.
When you fixed things, had more jobs for our citizens that paid a living wage. Oh well, it”s tough to be an old fuddy-duddy, wishing for such foolishness.
Jim Hall
Clearlake Oaks
