Mouths of Babes...

Lisa mentioned to me that the Dow closed up at the end of last week.

We’ve been trying to be proactive in our long-range retirement plans so when the market does well, we do well.

Any time I spend much time thinking about the Dow “closing up ‘x’ points” I’m reminded of the first time I heard anything about the Dow Jones Industrials. I must’ve been about six years old at the time. The commentator reported “the Dow Jones Industrials finished up eight points…”

I thought he was talking about a baseball team. Maybe they were playing the S & P 500 that day and won the game 10-2 (thus they finished the day up eight points).

From that early observation, I was able to do a little foreshadowing about my adult life:

• Start investing and planning for retirement early, and
  
• Baseball will be an important part of your adult life

The seeds for Coach Jeff’s Blog were sewn in the late 60s!

I remember other bits of wit and wisdom from my childhood years. It’s funny how some things stick with you over the years. And, it’s interesting how often it proves to have some meaning.

For example, I remember as a small lad playing in the yard and gazing up at the electric blue springtime skies. The white puffy clouds reminded me of mashed potatoes in a big blue bowl.

As we dig out of the latest blast of wintery weather, aren’t we all pining for the warmth of the sun and those white puffy clouds and clear blue skies?

Note to self: embrace the nice weather to come and always remember it contrasts with unpleasant extremes.

Throughout childhood, I remember various quips and observations I made. Once, I went to the kitchen, poured myself a glass of water and gulped it down. As I finished, I proclaimed “There, that’ll keep my kidneys washed out.”

The adults in the room chuckled. I didn’t understand their mirth.

You see, what six-year-old Jeffie was telling 26-year-old and 36-year-old Jeff was “Skip all those sodas. Drink the water instead and you’ll be happy with the results.” Alas, I didn’t follow my own directive until four bouts of kidney stones as an adult got my attention.

And when I asked my doctor “What can I do to avoid kidney stones in the future?” his first answer was simple: “Drink water.”

Out of the mouths of babes, you see…

Later, during my teen years, I started a journaling project. I kept a journal for some of my middle school years and much of my time in high school. Then, inexplicably, I decided to trash those editions.

Years later, as a young adult, I started a new journaling project that has now gone for about 10 years. Some day, I plan to give Holly and Paul the finished product.

That will be something I hope they will find to be of value; how much more valuable would the volumes be if I could have also presented five years of writings from my teen years?

Sometimes, we make some stupid decisions. Burning those 400 or so pages in the fireplace – which we dubbed the “Smoke-o-matic” because of its propensity to put out great volumes of smoke into the house rather than the chimney – was not my best decision. It sure would be cool to have those musings now.

I predict six-year-old Jeffie could have given his 16-year-old counterpart some good advice on that point as well.

JG

Originally posted 2/23/2015