“It’s not like we live in a Norman Rockwell world” – quote from a friend.

I heard this some time ago, and I had to laugh. My friends at work sometimes think I am a little out of touch. Ok, I don’t drink Starbucks coffee. I also don’t have an ipod or a wing-ding fancy phone that does a million things. And I love my wife, and love spending time with her! To one of my friends in particular, I am a relic out of time, trying to apply my Midwestern upbringing to a society that is so far moved on I haven’t got a chance.

Well, personally I think this shows a great amount of ignorance on their part about Norman Rockwell. The other day my mother drug me out to his museum at the other end of our little state and I got a good gander at a whole lot of paintings and Saturday Evening Post covers. Frankly, I think not only is ol’ Norman right on the money but he’s timeless.

Consider the old man sitting on the running board of a truck with his young boy, waiting for a bus to come. The man is hunched over, tired, looking off to the right – in a sense back in time, back at the farm, back at his own life. The boy is sitting up straight, eager, and looking to the left – with a suitcase that says “State U” on it. He’s looking into a bright future expectantly and confidently. Is that really something you can’t imagine?

Consider the solder, home on leave, sitting on a stool next to his mother. He’s peeling potatoes for her (perhaps something he learned in the army? Ah that Rockwell humor) and is very focused at the task at hand – while his mother is looking at him, not the food or anything else, with a smile on her face and a glow in her eyes, on the brink of tears. Don’t think mothers love their sons anymore and are grateful they came back from serving alive and not in a box? Think this message is outdated? Who are you kidding.

How about the young girl – about 15 from the look at her. She wakes up, brushes her teeth, goes to swimming lessons, gets dunked by a boy, goes on a date with said boy, shares a milk shake (two straws) gets kissed on the forehead unexpectedly (and acts like she’s grossed out) goes home, brushes her teeth, writes in her diary with at BIG smile on her face, and goes to bed. Naw, that would never happen now would it?

Or another young girl – skirt and shirt all dirty and mused up, knees dirty, hair wild, with a black eye and a gigantic smile on her face as she sits on the bench outside the principal’s office. I wonder what the other girl looked like? <smile!>

Consider “the gossip.” A middle aged big-nosed woman tells a friend a secret. She tells the milk man. He tells the farmer. He tells his wife. She tells the delivery boy. He tells the dispatcher. He tells his coworker. He goes home and yells at his wife – the big nosed woman. I think that’s pretty timeless!

Or one of my favorites. A young woman and her son are sitting in a diner. They are dressed plainly but nicely and sharing a table with a couple rough looking fellows. There’s nowhere else to sit. However the rough guys – and all the OTHER rough guys in the diner - are looking a little guilty and uneasy. Why? Because they young boy – about 10 or so, and the young woman, his mother apparently, have their heads bowed and are praying before they eat their dinner. Surrounded by the dirty, sweaty, coarse men who are suddenly very much aware of their own condition.

Ok, my friend has got me here. No one seems to feel any shame anymore about how they act or talk. Fine, it’s not a Norman Rockwell world. But maybe it should be.

Randy