WWGD WHAT WOULD GRANDPA DO?

Old Trunks is willing to admit her mind wanders. It has nothing to do with being old, rather the way I am structured. And, the more distractions there are, the less focus.

So, WWGD comes to mind. When Grandpa was listening to the State of the Union message on the battery radio, did he stay focused? Certainly he said, "Dem sons a bitches" a few times because that was in character for him. I had a couple of early years listening to him talk about politics, mostly at The Mint, a bar on LaBree Avenue in our home town.

Grandma would go to the grocery store and Grandpa would go to The Mint. We would sit in a booth with other mid-sixties men. They would play with a rubber back cup with dice in it and drink beer. I don't know what that was all about but I do know Grandpa thought FDR was the finest and Harry Truman was doing okay, too. He was, as you may have guessed a Democrat to the bone.

Now the SOTU message was designed so the joint congress would know what the President's plan was. It did not have to be a speech, it could be written. As we know, sometime in late January most of the Presidents people my age have known have pre-emptied programing to visit with us about their goals for the coming year. Grandpa used to say what they say isn't always what they do.

And as an adult, I understand what he meant. He simply meant that proposals had to be accepted by Congress. It wasn't that from Washington to Obama that what the President said was going to happen.

Now we must remember that Obama and all the other Presidents have the interest in the country as a whole. We need to realize that when he says, "Take care of the vulnerable" it includes people on Medicare. So I am saying, like my Grandfather said, "Dem sons a bitches" because we haven't seen an increase in our checks and the price of insurance, not only from Medicare but a secondary insurance has gone up.

Like Grandpa, in his sixties, others his age and mind, are concerned about where the buck are going to come from for increasing taxes and insurance when, we are on a fixed income. Well, WE, that is MST and I are not but you get the point. Where does it stop? It doesn't.

Although I found the SOTU message inspiring, I did wander off. How many times did Biden touch his face and hair? Was someone refilling his water glass from below? Where did that Tan Man get that tan? He is from Ohio, no one is that tan in Ohio, not this time of year. OH, LOOK, there is the guy from Minnesota!

But I did try to stay tuned in and when the President was finished. I simple tuned out all the people who where telling me what the President said. If I didn't get it the first time, I am certainly not going to take someone else's opinion on what THEY think he said.

So, if you were away from your home and could not watch the message last night OR you were so tired you were in bed before the speech, just click on any channel or read any newspaper or read the crawlers on the Internet. You will, I promise, find it. And maybe, just maybe there is a little Benhard in you, too.

Joy to you.

e