For the past several months, I have not added many comments to my Blog. The injury to my cervical spinal cord in March of this year that caused pain in my arms and hands, made it difficult to type and to even think about things other than my pain. Later, I was able to write about a skilled surgeon and other medical personnel that helped me through that process.
This morning as I was driving to Sam’s to get a few things, one of Charley Pride’s songs began playing from my playlist – “Nickles and Dimes and Love”. I have listened to this song many times over the years, but this morning it made me want to write again today. I remembered that trip to Branson the year when Charley signed the cassette tape with that song on it for Eva. However, the words in that song spoke so much about the memories of a different time in our lives.
A time when we had little to call “ours” and yet we found comfort in simple things with our loved ones. We had our dreams for the future while controlling our desire to “have it now”. To focus on the needs of the family and not the “wants” of our dreams. When setbacks occurred, we moved forward with love to hold us together. When a loss of a job, illness, or other unplanned problem affected one of us, we all pulled together as a family.
Over a period of a lifetime, we accumulated a lot of stuff and checked a lot of boxes off our bucket list we called “dreams”. However, the most valuable was the thing called Love. We have begun the discussions about “who will get what” when I am gone from this life and that is a good thing, but the one thing that can be shared is our love for each other. If you can do that, it does not matter how many nickels and dimes you must divide up.
There is an old saying “You can’t take it with you” and some have taken that to mean spend it before you are gone. It is my hope that the most important thing I leave behind are memories of things we did as a family. Maybe a trip, perhaps church events, or even just dealing with struggles in life. Blessings in life are not earned, they are given out of love.
Lessons I want to share are:
- To be given respect from others, you must first give respect to others.
- Expectations of others must be realistic based on what they can expect from you.
- Never forget who helped you get where you are today.
- Always ask yourself “Why are you doing what you are doing?”
Nickels And Dimes And Love
Recorded by Charley Pride and written by Steve Clark
Remember when pocket change was all we had
And all those calls from the corner phone booth
Collect to Mom and Dad
And that old worn out couch we called our bed
When our cuisine was pork and beans baloney and day old bread
Remember that darned old car that kept breaking down
All the times it left me stranded just thumbing all over town
And that old weekly paycheck just never stretched enough
Back in the times of nickels and dimes and love
Together we sure made some dreams come true
Sometimes it wasn’t easy but somehow we made it through
And when I get to thinking things are tough
Then I remember the times of nickels and dimes and love
Oh those good old times of nickels and dimes and love
Remember digging through your old purse in hopes you’d left
Enough change for an RC cola or a pack of cigarettes
Now we’ve got almost everything that we were dreaming of
Back in the times of nickels and dimes and love
Together we sure made some dreams come true
Sometimes it wasn’t easy but somehow we made it through
And when I get to thinking things are tough
Then I remember the times of nickels and dimes and love
Oh those good old times of nickels and dimes and love
Do you remember those times of nickels and dimes and love
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