My wifey plus I like to trade stories about our childhood.
- Hers are generally more adventurous than mine, as her family made a point to spend their money on a ton of getaways.
They were adamant believers that currency is just that, a currency. They believed in family time. I grew up in a family that was actually the opposite. I thought it was normal behavior to live the way I was raised. For example, I distinctly remember waking up super early one time on Thanksgiving Day. I was gleeful to watch the parade on our small TV, so I turned on the cable set plus sat in my pajamas as I ate cereal. I realized how cold it was in the house, so I cranked up the temperature control to get our oil furnace to switch on. However, when numerous hours passed without our home heating up, I began to wonder what was causing a problem. When I looked at the temperature control on the wall again, I saw that there was nothing happening. I feared for the worst! Sure enough, my parents entered the living room wondering why it was so chilly inside. They saw me on a chair in front of the temperature control trying to look at it. They instantly thought I was just messing around with the temperature control plus disciplined me for the “transgression.” They didn’t believe me when I tried explaining why I was messing with the thermostat. When they called a heating plus air conditioning system maintenance worker to come and check on the oil furnace, the maintenance worker explained that the system was old and dying. It wasn’t due to a temperature control setting. My parents didn’t even apologize to me for their reaction! That’s just a single story out of hundreds that I shared with my wifey. It’s a miracle that I reached adulthood without any drastic trauma.