Random Thoughts and Observations

I quit watching TV news, including cable channels. I do scan the news headlines on the internet each morning, but seldom read the details. Same stuff, different day. Weird people…Woke ideas…Greedy politicians…Foreign adversaries…High prices…Open borders…Drugs…Rampant crime…and on and on. I feel like the character Howard Beale in the 1976 film “Network,” when he yelled out, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” National politics really gets me agitated, but if you look at it in another way, these Congressmen are hilarious performers. They absolutely crave your attention…just like those little organ grinder monkeys that clap, pull off their tiny red hats, and beg for pocket change. The only difference is that the monkeys smile and are friendly.

On the topic of politics, the campaigns for President have already begun. Shouldn’t there be a law that no one can campaign until the actual election year? C’mon, we need a break! Most people have their minds made up anyway. Trump’s MAGA Republican followers are steadfast in their loyalty no matter what the Donald does or says. Biden’s Democrat liberal supporters aren’t so sure about Ol’ Joe, but they’ll vote for any Democrat who runs against Trump. I predict neither of those two will get their party’s nomination…So who will it be? If I were a betting man, I would go with Florida governor Ron DeSantis on the Republican ticket. The Democratic spot is up for grabs. I just read, for the second time, “Keeping the Republic,” written in 2011 by former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels. You may disagree, but I sincerely believe Mitch would have been an outstanding President who could have prevented many of our present day problems, especially our dysfunctional bureaucracies and outrageously enormous national debt, which is an unmitigated disaster.

Switching topics…In my last column I mentioned some of the candies that were popular when I was a kid growing up in the 1950s. Well, I tried to remember some of the toys that I received as a small child, but the only ones I could remember were cap guns, army men, board games, and a Howdy Doody puppet….so I searched the internet and found the following toys from the 1950s.

How many do you remember?…ant farm, hula hoop, Play-Doh, wooly willy, space ray gun, tiddly winks, Betsy Wetsy, Tiny Tears, color forms, magic 8 ball, cymbal monkey, Frisbee, silly putty, Mr. Potato Head, slinky, friction toy cars, bop bags, whiffle ball, paint-by-number sets, matchbox cars, farm playsets, Barbie, Gumby, electric pinball, space flashlight, tin clickers, Robbie the robot, water rockets, wheel-O, pop-it beads, and baking powder submarine. I seriously doubt if any kids today would even play with those toys!

My two youngest grandkids, ages 3 and 1, already have more toys than I ever had in my life. I picked them up last week, and drove them to our house, which is only a mile away. Our son insisted that I install his safety child car seats in my vehicle and buckle them up. I know it’s the law and that child seats are great, but seriously…25 mph for a mile down a seldom traveled gravel road? (If we see a car on our road, we become suspicious!) When I was a youngster, child safety seats hadn’t been invented. My siblings and I had free range inside the Buick family truckster…teasing each other, fighting, sticking our heads and arms outside the windows, and causing general mayhem until Dad got fed up and tried his famous backhand slap. I also rode to town in the back of the old Dodge pickup hundreds of times (and with a load of corn to the elevator on a hot day…sometimes on top of the cab!) Well, times have changed, so I gave in and did the right thing. Besides, our son is a police officer…he could have given me a ticket!

In other pressing news, my wife and I usually go out to eat at a nice restaurant in Crawfordsville or Lafayette each weekend. I have noticed that prices just keep going up, and it’s almost to the point of being ridiculous at many dining establishments, so we are going to be a little more selective in where we go. When a restaurant charges $3.99 for a soft drink, you know you’re getting the shaft! We may have to take frozen meals and our microwave oven to the restaurant for our weekly dining out.

On a final note, like Tim Timmons mentioned in one of his columns, I also wake up in the middle of the night and start thinking about many things…and then can’t get back to sleep. Our world is more complicated, and our country is facing many problems right now. But then I just have to remind myself that things always work out eventually for the better, good will triumph over evil, and life goes on. And…I am so fortunate and grateful to live here in rural Indiana.

– John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 32 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.