From the Top!

I was born into a Christian family of 1 brother, and 2 sisters. A mother and father that took us to church every time the doors were opened and when they weren't physically able to take us, they called neighbors! Imagine that, being too sick to go yourself, yet sending you children with someone else. "Train a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6 My daddy was my hero, my mother was my motivator and my siblings were the pain in the necks they were created to be! LOL! JK I love you guys! I have good childhood memories, 1 TV, 1 bathroom, and 1 car in the early years! Yes, 4 females and 1 bathroom on Sunday morning and I don't remember it ever being a problem to make it to 10am Sunday School. We had a "vette", Chevrolet Chevette that is. Teal Green, 4 door and not 1 inch of fabric in it. That's right, all vinyl! That was leather to us! I can still remember the smell of vinyl and the soy bean plant on 129. Oh, the memories!

I remember my siblings riding the bus to school, and my parents carpooling and picking up a co-worker on the way! In return, a bag of vegetables, not expected, but out of appreciation to the kindness shown by my family who had enough excuses to say "we can't" by today's standards, but didn't. Today, the "Jone's" way, we all skip church to stay home and wipe each others noses, each child has their own TV and at least 2 game systems, their own bathroom and we can't make it to 11:00 service on time. Daddies are those males that fill the bank accounts for the Target shopping trips with overtime at work and when they get a day off, they are off to the golf course, ball field for the weekend tournament, or lake to fish alone because "Sonny" will scare the fish off. Moms are busy proving they are equal to a man in the world which translates to being better than the man. We have at least 2 cars before our kids hit driving age at which time we add one per 16 year old and we fail to offer a ride to that co-worker living 1 neighborhood over out of fear of not getting the compensation we "deserve". Siblings are still the pain in the necks they were created to be, only, the fun loving picking I remembered that ended with laughter, usually ends in tears and the dreaded "I can't wait until I can move out of here" comment. So, what's different? The Jone's? Well, keeping up with them at least. Sure, there has always been the Jone's, I only grew up in the 80's, I just never had that family that desired to keep up with them... Thank God! So, am I saying I had a perfect family? Life? No! One bathroom people! We had many faults, but we were happy. So when I woke up one day on the brink of loosing everything, miserable and without hope, I remembered a day when I was truly happy... poor!