Private Consultation with Brent Johnson

This is reminiscent of the great monologue from the first episode of The Newsroom.

I was raised in Center, Texas where we treated each other with respect. We didn't eat a lot of fast food because it was considered a treat, not a food group. We drank Kool-Aid and ice tea made from water that came from our kitchen sink. We ate bologna sandwiches, or even tuna (which was in a can not a pouch), PB&J & grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, pot pies, but mostly home made meals consisting of mainly meat, potatoes, vegetable, bread & butter and homemade dessert.

We ate lunch in the cafeteria at school, some did brown bag it but very few. Our food was very healthy, delicious & fresh!

We grew up during a time when we would gather glass bottles to take to the store and use the deposit money to buy penny candy. (We even got a brown paper bag to put the candy in). You could get a lot for just 25 cents. We also mowed lawns, babysat, help neighbors with chores, worked with our dad's in the summer. We went outside a lot to play games, ride bikes, run with siblings, cousins and friends & played hide and seek, kick the can, jump rope, hopscotch, Red Rover, red light, Mother May I, kicker, basket ball even dodge ball. We drank tap water or from the hose outside... bottled water was unheard of!!

No cable t.v. just 3 channels!! Yes THREE!! And if the President was on...That was the ONLY THING ON! We had no microwaves, no cell phones.

We ate hot and cold cereal at the breakfast table before going to school. We watched TV as a family: Gunsmoke, Gilligan's Island, Wonderful World of Disney, Grizzly Adams, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, Happy Days, Fantasy Island, and Starsky & Hutch. After school, we came home and did homework and chores before going outside or having friends over. And could only watch cartoons on Saturday morning.

If you were bad in school, you got in trouble there and when you got home you got in trouble again because your parents already knew. Paddling was allowed in school and you behaved yourself or else.

We would ride our bikes for hours and talk until the lightning bugs came out. We would make lanterns with the lightning bugs and even pick 4 leaf clovers.

Not every 16 year old automatically expected a brand new car from their parents that they didn't have to worry about paying for. Because their parents were paying for it!

IF YOU GOT A CAR...You worked for it!! And whether you DID pay for it yourself or not....If it was misused in any way whatsoever...doing ANYTHING that you were told NOT to do with it....IT WAS TAKEN AWAY!! Until you could prove you could be responsible and obey the rules!!!

You LEARNED from your parents & grandparents instead of disrespecting them and treating them as if they knew absolutely nothing. What they said was Law!! And you had better know it!!!

If someone had a fight, that's what it was a fist fight and you were back to being friends afterwards or the bullying pretty much ceased. Kids that were around guns were taught how to properly use them and to respect them and never thought of taking a life.

You had to be close enough to home to hear your Mom yelling or Dad whistling to tell you it’s time to come home for dinner. We ate around the dinner table and talked to each other as a family unit. In school we said the Pledge of Allegiance and daily prayer, we stood for the National Anthem & listened to our teachers.

We watched what we said around our elders because we knew If we DISRESPECTED any grown up we would get our behinds whipped, it wasn't called abuse, it was called discipline! We held doors, carried groceries and gave up our seat for an older person without being asked.

You didn't hear curse words on the radio in songs or TV, and if you cursed and got caught you had a bar of soap stuck in your mouth and had to stand in the corner for quite some time. “Please, Thank you, Yes M'am and Yes, Sir" were part of our daily vocabulary! To this day I still say Thank You, I appreciate that, because that’s what I was taught.

I thank God everyday for my Mom and Dad, the way I was brought up to believe in God.

Lots of good times and memories.

The good ol' days!

These brilliant words are from American Patriot Christy Borders in Texas.  Her father was a great man and a true Patriot.  She obviously carries on his legacy by her comments.