A Message to the Grads of 2010

To the moms and dads and two thousand and ten grads, the class of “sixty” salutes.
We thought it would be nice if we imparted some advice as a way of tracing our roots.

Fifty years has gone by, in but the blink of an eye, and some of us got left far behind.
So right out of the blue, you’re gonna loose a few, but hopefully life will be kind.

Some graduated with honors, some of us were goners an’ hid out south of the equator.
Some kept in touch, and others, not so much but they showed up 50 years later.

You see a familiar face, that time can’t erase and you instantly know that you knew him.
And another you’ll ponder, from where did he wonder and what did the lord do to him?

We’ve had countless careers from engineers to volunteers that each of us had to probe.
We went in every direction of individual selection and literally encompassed the globe.

Some lifestyles are varied, some sweethearts got married we produced over 800 kids.
Grandchildren abounding, the number’s astounding with more on the way God forbids.

We should apologize for the terrible surprise that the world is going to hell in a basket.
It never needed changing or even rearranging. But somehow we put it in a casket.

Life was a little shorter, but gas was a quarter and a case of beer was only two dollars.
But that needed improving, we had to get moving, we were most intelligent scholars.

Someone made the decision no more free television.  We can even charge for water.
It was free from the hose, now we pay through the nose just like a lamb at the slaughter.

You have little rice rockets and metric sockets, but your cars are front wheel driven.
We had fifty five Chevys and hemi-head heavies.  That our cars were better is a given.

You might be fond’a that little old Honda, but let’s see you keep it for fifty more years.
Because I’m afraid, you’ll push it to the parade, there won’t be any gas it appears.

We had American made, but we improved on trade and sent all our jobs overseas.
To continue the life you’ve enjoyed, to remain employed, you all better learn Chinese.

Tattoos were for sailors or those friendly with jailers, now people are painted like lizards.
If there’s a way to do it, and see their way to it, they’ll have you tattooing your gizzards.

We had food made to order, cigarettes were a quarter now they’re six dollars a pack.
There wasn’t an answer to the question of cancer even doctors were smoking a stack.

So before you get started and join the departed remember, they’re now proven killers.
They’ll get you to try them and hook you to buy them and stuff them with vitamin fillers.

At three hundred a carton the price will be smart’in but someone will jack up the profit.
And the government will tax it, if no one will axe it and people are willing to cough it.

It’s like pick up sticks when you improve politics, every movement disturbs the pile.
So with every little blunder, we threw on more lumber.  You guys will be busy for a while.

Cast your nets worldwide, when problems collide, most of you’ll be in your prime.
When your kids give birth, we’ll be stepping off this earth, some say it’s just in time.

As you look down range, be careful what you change, be true to the founding fathers.
For it’s easy to get snowed and thereby erode the things that you thought to be bothers.

Try to take stock and maybe turn back the clock, give our flag that needed protection.
We hand you a mess, but if I had to guess, you’ll take the world in a better direction.


The Poem Stranger