Some Things Never Change

As I sat on my tailgate…I lifted the tab to the rim and pulled back slowly…per the instructions on the can of Van Camp’s Pork and Beans which had spent the morning on the dash of my truck warming in the December sun. I wiped off my spoon with the clean underside of my shirttails and dug in. The taste of that first spoonful took me back to my childhood…just as if it were yesterday…the memories flooded back…memories of a blissful time when all was right with the world. It was a simpler time before fast foods…before TV…a time when the family all ate dinner together. Those pork ‘n beans found their way on to our table with amazing frequency and I loved them. They were especially good on the family vacations when Mother would put the can in the back window of the car…by noon we would find a roadside table and enjoy that wonderfully warm tomato sauce and pork flavored bean. My dad referred to those beans, as “the musical fruit” and he would recite his favorite limerick. “Beans, beans the musical fruit…the more you eat the more you toot.” What great times. Our caring parents kept us kids on a short leash and well sheltered from an ugly outside world. Life was not so messy back then. As a “grown up” I tend to do what I want to do…and that’s what gets me in trouble.

Well…some things never change…our Father’s love and Van Camp’s pork ’n beans.

Dear Father God…give me the wisdom to stay on that short leash, listen to your words, follow your rules and enjoy this blissful life as a child. Amen