“I’ve never been this old before!”
BY CRAIG WENZEL
Most of you remember our son Matt. He’s married now, living in Pierre with his wife Amber and our little grandson, Layne. Matt’s antics as a child were commonly shared on the pages of this paper, in my “Poison Pen” column.
He’s a big boy now, 29 years old and working hard to be a good dad and husband.
We were standing on a bluff overlooking the partially-frozen Missouri River a couple of weeks ago. A 40 MPH northwest wind was creeping over the collar of my coat, making its way into my bones as we waited for another flock of Canada geese to fly past.
Don’t get me wrong, we were having a really good time and it wasn’t THAT cold — probably around 20 degrees. But just the same, the cold was getting into my bones.
We had a few geese laying in the snow beside us and it had become one of those great father/son outings that will always be remembered.
Matt looked over, a little surprised, to see me stomping my feet and shaking my hands, trying to maintain some type of circulation in them. “How can you be cold, Dad?” he asked. “Geez, I’m sweating and you’re cold!”
“I dunno WHY I’m cold,” I answered. “Maybe when a person gets older their circulation slows down…. how should I know, I’ve never been THIS old before!”
Matt didn’t look my way, he just kept watching the river.
Oh, by the way, Layne’s going to have a “baby brudder (or sister)” in the spring. There will probably be an update on his transition from an only child to being a “big brudder” in a future “My two cents worth” column.
Oh, the age thing…
some of you are probably trying to figure my age in your heads. The family started this paper in 1975, when I was 28 (the youngest newspaper editor in South Dakota at the time). Needless to say, I’m not the youngest newspaper editor in the state any more… at 39 years of age, our son Korrie (Mitchell Daily Republic) isn’t even the youngest editor in the state.
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I can’t remember a time when the United States was this excited about a presidential inauguration. When Barack Obama takes office this week he’s going to reach for the stars to meet everyone’s expectations. The newspapers and television stations are filled with pre-inaugural information and hoopla. We can only hope that the newly-inaugurated President Obama can meet “some” of our expectations.
Even one of his precious daughters lifted the standard to an all-time high last week. When looking at President Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address, chiseled in stone at the Lincoln Memorial, she said, “Daddy, your speech had better be good!”
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