Soaking Up Life like a Sponge

Most things about my life are not spectacular. I don't think I've experienced that 15 minutes of fame or made any major humanitarian breakthroughs. My life while growing up was your typical family of four (mom, dad, sister and myself). Our household usually contained a pet or two. And, I lived at home until the day I married and moved to my own home. As they say, "The Cleaver Household".

Growing up was an experience I fought every step of the way; but growing up happened anyway. That included schooling, college, and entering the working world. Along the way, I was apparently operating like a sponge, absorbing stuff of which I wasn't even aware until adulthood.

Quite possibly, growing up in the 40s and 50s was the ideal time for kids to be kids and parents to be parents. Dad worked to support the family while mom stayed home and pulled her weight raising the children, caring for the home, and generally making sure life moved along smoothly for everyone.

There were rules in every household. Parents made the rules and they were relatively simple rules. Mostly, they consisted of things the kids could do and things they could not do. The rules were similar in every household. Everybody knew the rules, and just about everyone followed them. The reason they followed the rules is that there were consequences, and everybody knew what those consequences were.

Back in those days every member of the family had certain responsibilities. These responsibilities were, by the way, non-paying responsibilities. They consisted of keeping our room cleaned, taking turns or sharing doing the dishes, taking out the trash, and putting away our clean clothes on washday. We were also responsible for doing our homework during the school year. There were heavy consequences for not doing homework.