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

Yankee Doodle went to town riding on a pony. He had to, with gas at more than four bucks a gallon.

We sell the Arabs wheat for seven dollars a bushel and they, in turn, sell us their oil for umpteen dollars a barrel. Let's shut off the wheat and see if they can eat their oil.

I wish I had the wisdom to see into the future and how it is going to end. I have an idea that it isn't going to stop at four dollars a gallon.

Last Sunday in church everything was geared toward Independence Day. The minister asked the congregation to get up and give testimony as to why this is such a great country. Several people got up and testified about our freedom to worship and free speech.

I could not do it because I am not happy with this country right now. For every item they mentioned, I could mention one that we have lost.

Freedom of speech is one of them. It's funny what some people call racism. It seems like the charge only applies to white people.

Where is FEMA these days? That agency caught all kinds of guff for not being in New Orleans, and now they aren't doing much for the victims of the Midwest floods. I'll bet there has not been one person flown to a large city and been put up in a hotel for free.

The people in the Midwest have been working their butts off trying to save what they have. Not one trailer has been provided for those who lost everything. Not one mayor or public official has said that they were going to rebuild his town to become a "vanilla" community.

When the new no-smoking law goes into effect, our bloated state payroll is probably going to swell even more with a special police force to enforce this new statute.

I wonder what their uniforms will look like. They will be carrying fire extinguishers instead of a firearm and their helmets will look like an ash tray. They will also be wearing smoke mask like the firemen have.

I am against smoking, but this is another one of a person's rights that has been restricted by Big Brother.

I don't have much respect for the Supreme Court, but my hat is off to them for their decision about handguns. There are plenty of laws on the books to take care of violators who commit crimes using a firearm. We just need to enforce these laws.

Watch out if you stop at Kautz's Plumbing Shop in Emporium, because if you get out of your car on the street side, you might get written up.

The police care about this situation but they don't give a hoot about the way the people drive coming up or down in Sylvan Heights. Stop signs there don't mean a thing.

So now a federal judge has slightly reduced the sentences of John Rigas and his son, Tim. The harsh treatment of John Rigas was a death sentence. Maybe President Bush or our new President will pardon him.

Did you hear about the old gentleman was pushing a shopping cart in Wal-Mart when he ran into the cart of a young man?

He said, "Excuse me son, I was looking for my wife and didn't see you."

The young man replied, "That's okay. Actually, I was looking for my wife, too."

So the older guy said, "What does she look like?"

"Well, she's tall and thin, with blonde hair down to her shoulders, sparkling blue eyes, nice tan long legs, and wearing white short shorts with a halter top."

As the young man walked away, he turned around and discovered that the old man was following him,

"I thought you were looking for your wife," he said.

"I was," the old man answered, "but I'd rather find yours."