I remember when I was a kid. Daddy worked for the civil service and the cold war was raging. So, we had reservations at one of the bunkers out on the aresenal.
One day he came home and said. If I call your momma on the phone and she says to you to go get in the car, don’t argue just do what she says. He says then, you don’t have to, and she’s not going to tell you twice. But know this, he says, if you don’t henceforth thereafter you will be “emancipated.”
I was also given to understand that she too had strict instructions. It didn’t matter if her hair was in curlers or hair full of Miss Clairol. Grab your purse, he told her, and wrap the towel around your head on the way out to the car.
I also remember sometime after I was grown and married and was just visiting mom and dad at home. He still worked for the civil service and declared his obligation to advise me of my upgraded status. Since leaving home I no longer had reservations and it wouldn’t be a good idea to try and impose on one of the gate guards in that scenario, whereby he most likely would have strict instructions to immediately eliminate any confusion by “setting me free.”
As I recall, it takes about twenty minutes for an ICBM to get here from Russia. I don’t know if Kim Jong is any closer. But, that’s not too long to finish up your bucket list either way.
©2022 – Jim Casey
