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2009
Soap Box Archives
Thoughts on Turning 73 On the 28th of October I will be 73 years old, seven plus decades of living in one of the most exciting and technologically advanced periods of life on Planet Earth. I have seen the advent of the jet airplane, television, a cure for polio, cell phones and space travel just to name a few of the mind-boggling happenings I've experienced. I remember a time when a lot of North Carolina's roads were unpaved and there was no electric lines and no water mains which meant that the families who lived in these areas had to heat and cook with wood and their light came from coal oil lamps and candles. Families living on farms raised a lot of their own food, and without refrigeration the only way to preserve it was to can or dry the vegetables and keeping the meat in smokehouses. Water came from a well, and even in some areas from springs. The first house I remember living in had electricity, but no running water. We had a pump on the back porch and a sanitary facility that you had to walk to, and it's true that the back issues of the Sears and Roebuck catalog did spend their dotage in the little house behind the big house growing thinner by the day. People seldom locked their doors, and anybody with the inclination to think about robbing someone could well have been faced with a 12 gauge shotgun held by somebody who knew how to use it and would not hesitate to do so to protect their family. I remember a cold Sunday afternoon in December 1941 when I was five years old and the family gathered around my granddaddy's big floor model radio to hear the news that the Navel base in Pearl Harbor had been attacked by the Japanese Imperial Air Force. We heard Franklin Roosevelt tell us that all we had to fear was fear itself, and we believed him. America was ill prepared for war, but the people of this nation pulled together and never had a doubt about winning and seeing this nation operating at 100% is a truly awesome thing to experience. Nobody was more respected than the men in uniform, and neither a journalist nor a politician would ever have said some of the things they say today, they would probably have been lynched. I remember the day that our long national nightmare finally ended and America celebrated for a while and got on with the business of becoming the greatest nation the world has ever known. I never saw a picture on a television until I was about fifteen years old but it was a life-changing experience, I just didn't have any idea at the time just how life-changing it was going to be. It truly did bring the world into our living rooms. In those days, there were only a few stations and when something was on something like The Ed Sullivan Show, the whole country saw it at the same time and it created instant stars. Elvis Presley came from obscurity to superstardom in a period of about two months. I remember a time when I had never met anyone who didn't believe in God or who wanted to blame the ills of the world on the United States, or who believed it was okay to abort an unborn baby, or that all mention of God and Jesus Christ should be banned in public schools. I was raised in an atmosphere of love and discipline and my mother could wield a switch with the aplomb of an Olympic fencer. If my infraction was minor, my mother would do the honors but if I stepped too far over the line she'd bring out the big guns, "We'll just wait until your daddy gets home." Oh no, not that! I had to dread it all day. I am so thankful that my parents loved me enough to teach me right from wrong and respect for other people and their property. Unfortunately, corporal punishment is frowned on in certain segments of our society, but I personally think that not disciplining a child is doing them a disservice. Now before some of you cherry pickers try to misconstrue what I'm saying, I'm not talking about child abuse. I'm talking about a switching or paddling administered by a loving parent who had rather take the punishment themselves than have to give it to their child but realize that they are doing the child a favor by bringing them up to know right from wrong. I remember when the night sky over coastal North Carolina was so full of stars that it resembled butter stirred up in molasses and the moon was so bright you could read by it. I remember cold frosty Carolina mornings with a big fire crackling in my momma's big black wood cook stove and the first time I saw snowflakes, they looked as big as goose feathers to me. I remember walking down the aisle to the melancholy strains of "Pomp and Circumstance" with the class of 1955, all twenty-two of us walking out into a world we knew very little about. I remember the day I went to see my friend, Russell Palmer, and he pulled out an old Stella acoustical guitar, an act that was to change the course of the rest of my life. But that's another whole story. I want to thank all you people who have listened to our music and supported us over the years. You've made it possible for a modestly talented, farsighted kid from North Carolina to live his dreams. I will be forever indebted to you. What do you think? Pray for our troops, and for our country God Bless America Charlie Daniels
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