GEEZERS THINK

By

David K. Crabtree

 CG (certified geezer)

     I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf in 2013, 

although I was very happy with the leaves I turned over in 2012. No matter. The New Year is always a time for forging ahead with bold thoughts and ideas. Seeing the situation that this Country is in, I have come up with a new way to approach…anything. 

All you have to do is to apply the concept of “Geezer Think”

© Yanc | Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Image

 This method, which has been in the testing phase since the early 1800’s, applies none of the complicated, intellectual, critical thinking, and I might add, overrated, and high tone ways to look at a problem. 

Nope, “Geezer Think” will revolutionize the way problems are solved whether it be a crisis in the middle East, a school board needing a decision on funding allocation, or if it’s a good idea to plant another acre of corn or beans. It doesn’t matter. “Geezer Think” solves all problems in a quick decisive manner, and without a strike, another committee, or an Executive Order.   Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? That’s only because it’s too logical. 

Here’s the concept.

     Let’s say you need an insightful decision about, oh let’s say plastic bags for groceries. Seems that many State and local governments are banning the single use plastic bags we all get anytime we buy something. You know those bags don’t you. They are the ones that rip two steps before you get in the house, spilling the leeks all over the front porch which is covered in wet slimy leaves. A Certified Geezer or CG would have asked a simple question to those decision makers. “What did we use before paper and plastic bags?” All geezers worth their salt will instantly remember totes made out of flour sacks or some other piece of cloth. Nothing was wasted was it. So, here we are a hundreds of years later and we are once again using…wait for it…cloth bags.

© Khanga | Dreamstime Stock Photos &Stock Free Images

 All the controversy, hearings, committee minutes, protests and squabbles could have been avoided simply by asking a CG. You see, we remember. Not all at once anymore, but generally or with a bit of time and a wee dram of whiskey. Take something like parental responsibility. 

A CG knows that they had to pay the price to repair that broken window when their youngster and his friends decided it would be fun to throw rocks at the neighbors cat, sitting peacefully on the inside ledge, looking out of the window. We made the kids wish they were never born by having them rake the neighbors leaves, shovel snow from their driveway, or Heaven help us, paint their new fence. Now a days, the kids think we have “people” for that. Most often though, the “people”, are still Mom and Dad. There is a line between discipline and cruelty of course, though today it is often some “administrator” that’s making the mark very fuzzy, rather than the parents who generally have a view unobstructed by bureaucracy.

    “Geezer Think” turns out to be a combination of Yankee frugalness, Southern practicality, Western resourcefulness, and of course that simple logic I mentioned.  The point is that decisions, business and personal, are made so complicated that we are unable to move ahead.  If we would ask, and follow, the advice of those who have been there and done that, the Country and our own lives would be better off.

David

I am the youngest of three sons and was born in upstate New York. My mother, an immigrant whose family escaped from Germany in the mid-1930s, became a registered nurse. My father, a Mainer and noted architect, moved to the young family to a suburban town outside of Boston, Massachusetts. While taking night classes at Boston University in order to get into their School of Communications  I was advised that my draft number was about to come up. So, including a year in Vietnam, I spent 10 years in the Air Force before going to work for a number of commercial airlines in the production and materials management areas. Later, as the airline business waned, I moved into technical writing. Currently I write novel and work as a consultant in the security field. I have been married for over 40 years and have one married daughter.

Writing seems to have been a part of my life. From an early age, I would make up stories or write songs, but rarely keep them. The urge finally got to me and I have actively written since the early 70s. I also have been a writer and editor on numerous organizational publications, newsletters and technical manuals. “Destiny and Decision” was my first full-length novel written for publication and is the first in the “Wands of Merlin” series.  I also expound on some daily topics at www.dkcrabtree.wordpress.com

I enjoy a wide variety of leisure activities including riding my motorcycle, leather work, and photography. Some of my photographs can be seen in the Gallery section of my website www.dcrabtree.com or at my blog www.krabtree.blogspot.com  

Books by David K. Crabtree currently available in print or Kindle.