It’s great to hear that the oil in the Gulf is disappearing. It has suddenly vanished. The fisherman can, hopefully, go back to work and maybe the tourist will return soon. It’s still not entirely clear what happened to the oil. Was it sucked up, burned, washed away by the hurricane or was it prayer. Maybe it was a combination of all the above.

I’m glad the oil is gone but there are many things in my life that make me sad to see disappear. Many of the type movies I love, like Westerns, are no longer made. Much of the music I have enjoyed is so hokey that it is no longer played. People dressing nicely are now a rarity. Waking down the street at night is no longer safe and it’s no longer possible to leave a kid unattended in the yard to play. The world is filled with crazy folks ready to assault you. Even the priest can’t be trusted. A kid can’t even ride their bike to the store or to a movie and leave it unlocked. It doesn’t matter because movies aren’t in the neighborhood anymore to be accessible by a bike.

My favorite foods are also disappearing. My wife cooked us a great meal today with okra and tomatoes, blackeyed peas and cornbread. She remarked that none of the grandkids would eat this stuff. Their life is fast food, pizza and such. They would be repulsed to see me crumble a piece of that cornbread into a glass of milk for a bedtime snack.

The saddest things to disappear are the people I love. All my aunts and uncles have passed away and my cousins are going fast. As the Bible says. “ One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever. Unfortunately, even the earth is not abiding very well. Global warming is in the process of reducing the planet to a burnt out cinder.

Oh well, I’m not going to worry about these things. There is not much I can do. I’m just going to close the porch for tonight and have me some cornbread and milk before turning in. I have to make sure all the doors are locked. That’s something else new to our modern age. We didn’t even have locks on the door when I was a kid.