Yesterday I was taking a load of junk to the dump, but on the way, I stopped off at the ever-evil Mc Donalds. Advertising that came to you via (quoting generation Z) via a creepy clown. How is it clowns got such a bad reputation in the past thirty years? I'll bet the Steven King movie "IT" had something to do with it. Why is it time seems to change the perception of everything these days? All except the song Muskrat Love and Roller Derby, those things have always been weird. Eating fast food is an anomaly, first you crave it and then thirty minutes after ingesting it you begin to pay the price. In this life there are only three other things I know of that those same rules apply, golf, riding bulls, and marriage. Bulls are good for many things, riding is not one of them, unless of course you have a screw lose. Sometimes after eating Mc Donalds, we begin to bargain with God over our impending stomach cramps and promise we will never eat it again, but we know we will. Fast food is the law-abiding citizens equivalent to crack cocaine. Yet once again I digress like an old pro.
The man in line in front of me in the drive thru lane had to open his door to retrieve his "FOOD" and to collect a discount per the app on his phone because his automatic window was broken. I noted that the phone he was using was rather a pricy one, just north of $1,500 and I only know that because I have been pricing them lately. And because my windows were also cracked, I could smell the skunk weed coming from his vehicle. When I say I could smell it I don't mean it gently wafted my direction like the neighbors were grilling burgers, I mean it enveloped the front of my F-150 like I was attending Bob Marley's funeral with Willy Nelson riding shot gun. It was at that moment it occurred to me "it's strange what people choose of their own free will to spend their hard-earned money on." He seemed to have cash readily available for high end electronics, fast food, and the most primo weed known to man, but evidently, he considered fixing his window a non-necessity. I used to be under the impression that most people are like-minded, but I have given up on that dream. Evidently these days there is not enough common sense to go around, and we end up squabbling over what is left of it. Our spending choices often defy logic, and I am pointing the finger not only at you but also at myself. I often think to myself after an expenditure... why did I buy that? Why else would I be making a trip to the dump?
My grandpa on my dad's side continually drilled into my young mind that if everything we make, we readily and quickly spend, that's a recipe for disaster. He often referred to that as "the financial equivalent of a monthly root canal." Living just behind the proverbial cash eight ball is no fun. Waiting on a paycheck to clear just so we can buy groceries is no fun, I have done it. But I refuse to do it anymore. Statistics say that 27% of all Americans have NO savings, and a whopping 60% say they have some but not enough to cover a major expense. It has occurred to me lately that some of these folks could benefit from the feeling of missing a meal or two. The whole reason granddad has his financial philosophy was because he grew up during the depression and understood what it meant to be truly poor. Few people alive today have any concept of what it means to be truly poor. And I am not talking about skipping breakfast one day and making the comment "my stomach thinks my throats been cut." Truly poor people had to scrimp and save to just for the money to buy shoes, but in the south, most went without them in the summer months anyway. About three million children between the ages of 7 and 17 quit school during the depression to help their family put food on the table. Once again, our reality dictates our life perception.
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