Working late again

Long story.
I turned 16 in Feb 1964. It was a Fri. Dad gave me the old woreout '49 Chey to drive to school.
Sat. Mom went to buy some groceries at the A & P grocery in our little very rural town of 4000. She came home and told me I had a job starting Mon. at the grocery, 12 1/2 hours Sat and every afternoon after school excect Mon. I mentioned I did not know I was looking for a job. She said: Yes the Hell you were, you just did not know it!" Quote un Quote. I knew we did not have the income of most there, but I never knew we were that poor in comparison. But our home had food, clothes, and love. A neighbor gave me a horse when I was 13. I was rich!!

I had a bud that rode with me to school every morning, I picked him up on the way. His dad had an insurance business, I figured Kenny's family were somewhat well off as his dad bought him a MoPed when he was 14. At 14, I walked. When Kenny hit 16, he told his dad he wanted a car. His dad told him to get a job like I had and he would "help" him with expenses like gas, cost of the vehicle, insurance. Kenny told his dad no way and to **** off. His mom died from bad cancer when he was 17. I felt bad for him. Kenny always had to bum rides, and then he graduated and dad paid or him to go to college. He got a journalism degree and the draft lottery came along and he had a "good" number. I went to a ag college and had a full time summer job ever summer. Plus I started colts after work and weekends.

When Kenny graduated college, him and another kid from our HS class moved to Alpharetta, Ga. a high end burb of N Atlanta and started a magazine about all going on that burb. I heard it was doing well, untill Kenny embezzeled a lot of $ from the co. The mag went under and Kenny disappeared for years. Later I heard he went to prison convicted of embezelment where he worked. Then when he was about 60 he returned to our home town, broke and nowhere to live. An older neighbor down the road where we had lived as kids took him in. Another kid in our class had some good businesses and gave
him a job but guaranteed to him IF he stole he would have him killed and no one would find his body. I guess he never stole. I heard Kenny died a few years later. I saw his brother and told him I heard Kenny had passed, such a shock. His brother said " I had NO brother." Sad story.

Funny as we get older things make us think back so many decades. In a small rural county, you have a small school and you know everyone it seems and everyone's families as you are related to part of the county anyway. I think back and seems like the kids that had either jobs after school or family had big farms where they worked there all the time, those kids all learned to work and had the fire to work. Then I think back to those kids that had what I called the "easy life", either they inherited wealth or married wealth, succssful I guess you call it.... or... so many of those kids died early from drugs, suicide, murder. Life if funny.