Through An 'Old Timer's' Eyes
By Howard 'Mac' McDonald

With the cost of everything going through the roof, it looks like a vacation will be one luxury that a lot of folks will be giving up.

If you have a good imagination, you could go to Sizerville State Park, camp out, fish in Cowley Run and pretend that you are in Yellowstone National Park. With steam coming off the boiling water on your fire ring, you can say pretend it's Old Faithful about to blow her top.

We are fortunate that we have a park near us as nice as Sizerville. Get out and enjoy the great outdoors close to home.

In the warm sunshine of Sunday afternoon, my wife and I carried our dinner outside and ate at the small garden table in the front yard. We are looking forward to those lazy, hazy days of summer.

People are telling me it is time to withdraw from the Presidential race, as I didn't get many write-in votes.

Just think, we still have six more months to listen to the politicians telling us what they are going to do for us over and over again. I don't remember when there was so much hype over an election. They babble on and the war keeps going on. I hope I see that end in my lifetime.

In the May/June issue of Saturday Evening Post is an article, "Moms Will Be Moms," featuring covers from past editions that portray a mother with a little boy.

The writer points out that if an artist was having a hard time coming up with a subject for the cover, he would usually go back in his life and come up with something about Mom.

Many of those covers had an impish-looking little boy being lectured by mother and somewhere in the picture you would find a small dog cowering like he was getting the same punishment.

If I had any talent as an artist, I could give them some humorous pictures of my mother correcting me. She had a way with words and a stinging slipper. My brother had a big old dog and, if my mom hit us with a yardstick or a switch, he would take it off of her and chew it up.

Saturday Evening Post was founded by Ben Franklin in1728. Norman Rockwell did a lot of covers for the Post and other works. We have a collection of his plates and his cups. His holiday covers were always the best. His painting of a family at the Thanksgiving dinner table was always a favorite of mine. You could almost hear the blessing and taste the turkey.

Mother's Day will soon be here. If your mother is still with you, consider yourself blessed. I missed a lot of Mother's Days because I was overseas. We spent some good ones together when it was possible.

If we could have had a woman President back then, my mother would have made a fine one. She was one crusty gal with more common sense in her little finger than all those clowns in D.C. have all together.

With the cost of gas going up every other day, I am thinking about getting a bicycle.

I don't need 20 speeds but I do want a fat set of tires. I would be able to get downtown with out too much effort, but the return trip home up the hill might be a hassle.

Nobody would confuse me with Lance Armstrong. I don't think I would look too good in a Spandex suit.