Contemplation. In my old dictionary, one of the definitions is “thoughtful inspection”. This seems like an old person’s word. The answer to “what ya doing?” from an old man sitting on the front porch, “Oh, I’m just contemplating.” Perhaps this is how common sense wisdom is gained by many of the elderly, a better insight of life and the world not seen by those younger, just contemplating.
In the past years a few with front porch wisdom have shared that wisdom with later generations through their writings. One of these folks was A.V. Culpepper. Born on a small Alabama farm in 1903, he later worked his way through four years of college and then held a long career as farm agent in Monroe County. During his working years, he wrote many humorous columns for the local paper. The following is one of his essays from a small book of about 1965.
“I am a natural born optimist. I always have been. Of course this day and time its powerful hard to be real optimistic all the time, but maybe all of us need to show a more cheerful disposition, and it just might spread to other folks. In fact I think I can see some definite trends toward the world getting better as folks are getting more and more considerate. I was noticing just a day or two ago, a lady here in our town was parking her car in a parallel way just ahead of my car. I was up stairs across the street, and was watching. The lady bent one of my fenders a little, but she didn’t get mad about it, she just looked around and she saw there was nobody looking, and she drove on her way. It just did my heart good to see such consideration.
You take politics, I believe it’s getting cleaner all the time. I noticed the other day a big high ranking Republican said they were going to run a clean campaign, free of mud slinging and they were not going to call the Democrats the low down rascals, and thieves that they were. The Democrats came right back and said that although the Republicans are a bunch of greedy, corrupt, robbing scoundrels they planned a clean campaign. This kind of thing just naturally points to a better world.
Not long ago I was going out of town with a friend of mine and I left my car at a garage to have a new set of spark plugs put in. The next day when I went to pick up my car this garage told me that they just went ahead and gave me the special priced motor tune-up job of $25.00, that they had a special tune-up campaign going on and he just knew I would want to take advantage of it. It’s uncommonly good to have friends that will look after your interest like this.
The television stations are getting more considerate, if you fail to see a program on a certain night, the chances are they will run it again inside of two weeks. If you fail to catch a joke by some comedian on the seven o’clock show, don’t worry, some other comedian on the eight o’clock show will tell it again.
Young people are a lot nicer than they used to be, they hold doors open for me now, offer to help me down stairs, pull back chairs and some of them look as if they want to help me across the street. They didn’t used to do this which convinces me that the world is getting better.
One very important thing to show how the world is getting better is that men are willing to serve in our legislative halls, in Congress and the Senate of the United States and in our State legislature, though they will tell you that they are making a great sacrifice to be away from their business at home. But in order to serve their country they will make the sacrifice. Maybe we don’t appreciate our statesmen enough. I guess if they never do anything but help pass the gun bill and end all crime they will certainly deserve our praise. I hope they put a clause in the new gun law that will allow the sheriff and chiefs of police to have a bow and arrow, or at least a sling shot and a pocket full of green plums.”
Our society’s front porch setters have had little time for contemplation lately. Last month we hosted a meeting of the Panhandle Historic Preservation Alliance, gave tours which included autistic children that loved our old train, and enjoyed a presentation at our last meeting by well-known potter, teacher and lecturer, Larry Manning. In the next couple of months there is more to do. The society’s annual Sawmill Day festival will be held on May 2 this year. The society would be happy to have your help with this project. There are many slots to fill; most simply require someone to watch our exhibits and ensure their safety. We need your help - all day or part of the day. If you can, contact Mr. Fischer 850-256-3980.
