We Have A Great Forecast Coming Our Way

TODAY'S FORECAST Heavy Showers of blessings Strong Winds to blow your worries away Followed by warm hugs and kisses to put a smile on your face. This is a great forecast that will be happening each and every day from now on for all of us. I predict this and I am not even a meteorologist yet. When I was about nineteen, I went out with a young man and one night he took me to the television station where his friend was reporting the sports for the weekend night. In those days of 1953, there were only three local station and no other ones could we get on the dial. There were no remote controls to sit and use. If you wanted to change the station, you got up and out of your seat and went to the TV set and manually changed it. The stations closed down around midnight and did not reopen until about seven A.M. There was not a lot to watch; a few funny comedic shows, weather, sports, local news mainly and a few sitcom comedy shows. One we all watched was I Love Lucy with Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz. Dad use to chuckle over a story of an Italian immigrant and his hard time speaking English and doing everyday things well. It was cute and classy at the same time. It was called Life With Luigi.Dad had come from Russia when he was seven with his parents and four siblings; so he knew the hardships of learning a new language like Luigi did. We thought us all quite modern to have one black and white TV and every member of the family sat together and watched the same show. You took turns choosing what we would all watch and we were happy about it.Sometimes, if you did not like the chosen show, you went upstairs to your bedroom and either read a library book or listened to the radio. We watched nothing until about 6 PM and that was dinner time. There was not much on during the daytime hours. Slowly, more shows appeared and you had a choice perhaps of two good ones at the same time spot. In order not to have arguments going on and lasting days, we all decided each night what we would view that evening. In 1958 I won a 19 inch television in a raffle contest and since in those days, girls lived at home until they married; Dad and Mom were the recipient of a second TV set and it was put in the kitchen. Therefore, we were able to eat dinner and have the luxury of watching this large set. We watched Grouch Marx and a silly quiz show called You Bet Your Life. We would eat, watch and think how rich we were to own two sets. It was large for those days because it was 21 inches and the other one was probably 12 inches that sat in the living room. We were content with what we had. Almost everyone we knew was in our financial bracket We did not have Blackberries, IPods, DVD players and all the things available now and we did not have a cellphone to pull out wherever we were to chat or to get an important or unimportant phone call. If we were out and needed to use a phone, there were phone boxes on almost each and every corner of the streets wherever there were stores. Some stores like pharmacies had a phone stand enclosed in a box like small area where people could put in a dime, then a quarter in later years to call someone. You did not stay on the call for longer than five minutes, if that, because others were waiting to chat too. Now days, everyone has a television set in practically every room. Each person need not sit with the other family members to watch their favorite show. We sat in our rooms if it was us kids and did not want to watch what the family watched and if Mom and Dad, they sat in the living room to watch this fabulous ‘movie screen’ as we kids called it. It was hard to believe that we owned a piece of equipment that enabled us to watch ‘movies’ right in the luxury of our own home. It is hard to believe that everyone owns a cell phone and can call, receive and wait for a call, wherever they are at the present time. When watching Dancing with the Stars on television, as they get to the end of the show, they announce to the dancers who are lower in the winning line “you are in jeopardy now.” I think that a pretty stiff announcement, it is only dancing which I love with all my heart and soul, but that is a sad saying to tell anyone. Buddha said “you, yourself as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your own love and affection.” When we were kids, we depended on our parents and siblings to love us. If we were fortunate, we even had a set or two of grandparents to love us and make us feel secure. Now days, people rely on things and possessions to ‘love’ them along with their family and friends. By that I mean if you own a particularly pretty and expensive automobile, you probably think of it as a friend because it gets you to places you need to visit. If you own a vacation home somewhere else in another city, you think of it as loving you and you loving it. I know people who give their autos names other than the name it comes with. One person calls his car his “baby.” Another lady I know calls her vacation home her “castle number two.” Silly people do this, but I guess if it makes them happy, that is important too. We need not be in ‘jeopardy’, we need not call our belongings names, we need not feel inferior if we do not have custody or control of expensive items, and we need only to be happy and healthy. We do need a forecast of showers of blessings and warm hugs and smiles to make the day a good forecast day. All the many things we want or have in the way of ownership of material items helps to make days easier and pleasanter; but blessings and hugs and good health are the main requirements we should strive for in each and every moment we are here.That is what I call being in possession of the really necessary and happy requirements of a wonderful and excellent life. A Verizon representative probably in India said to me at the end of a phone call where he was fixing something that was wrong in my internet workings and I complimented him on doing it so efficiently “thank you for appreciating us.” All of us should be thankful and appreciate whatever we have. We are not in jeopardy, we are safe and secure. ELITA SOHMER CLAYMAN