Fond Memories of My Early Years

Gratitude takes center stage as we explore how looking back at our childhood with appreciation, regardless of its imperfections, can lead to emotional and spiritual abundance. Whether your upbringing was a dream or a challenge, there’s always room to break cycles and craft a nurturing environment for future generations. I invite you to reflect on these experiences and insights, using gratitude as a foundation to create wonderful childhood experiences for yourself and others. Tune in to feel inspired, to reminisce, and to perhaps find that gratitude can indeed be a transformative force in your life and the lives of those you love.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Lyndon Wolfe's Audio Memoir Memories
• 7:31 Gratitude for Childhood Blessings

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Here for the memories thought-provoking audio memoir shorts filled with stories, humor, anecdotes and commentary on social, cultural, business and religious issues. Whatever Lyndon remembers and thinks will entertain, challenge and inform is a possible subject. The collection of memories about one's life allows for the development and refinement of a sense of self, including who one is, how one has changed and what one might be like in the future.

Speaker 2: 0:34

Greetings and salutations. This is Lyndon Wolfe and you have stumbled upon I hope not literally, let's say you just providentially found my audio memoir here for the Memories. It is not a podcast. It is me sharing about my life, my opinions, my experiences. I started a written memoir, got up to about 40,000 words and said I'm not sure anyone would want to read this, but maybe they will listen to some small, brief excerpts on my life and then they'll have something as a point of reference when I depart this planet. They may not want to know anything more about me, maybe they think they know too much already, but nonetheless I'm going to leave something behind. So I haven't done this yet. I'm up in the 40s in episodes and I haven't gone back to the beginning, and I will.

Speaker 2: 1:25

I was born at a very young age and I was born at St Mary's Hospital in Knoxville, tennessee. It was such a momentous occasion and there was such great celebration that St Mary's almost changed the name of the hospital to St Lyndon's. There was a meeting of the hospital to St Lyndon's. There was a meeting of the board of directors. That unfortunately failed as they were concerned about potential retribution from the Catholic Church. So at that point. My family suggested that maybe the board should rename the psych ward in my honor, but that was met with complete indifference. That story seems too unbelievable, so I want you to know that I'm going to intentionally leave it out of this audio memoir.

Speaker 2: 2:13

A glimpse into my early life, with more details to come, I'm sure, should help you understand the underpinnings of who I am. Like anyone else, my formative years are the hermeneutical lens through which the reader can more clearly see the tension caused by my frequent inability to live up to the standards I was raised with. Growing up, I had the best family one could hope for far, far better than I deserved Stellar, salt-of-the-earth parents, model older siblings that set the bar far too high for me, and usually a loyal mutt of a dog rooting around me affectionately, Although we were probably financially at the lower end of middle class. This was something that I wasn't aware of, with both parents growing up during the Depression of the 30s. My father was born in 1920, my mother in 1924.

Speaker 2: 3:08

My upbringing instilled in me an understanding of the difference between needs and wants Something I need to be reminded of often and an understanding that I think our culture desperately needs the unstated values that everyone in the home followed were very clear Respect those in authority and live by the golden rule Give generously when you can, work hard, strive to do your absolute best and aim to become a better person. Excuses weren't tolerated here. Church was the center of our lives. Ever-present was the theme of the importance of always doing the right thing. Those, the philosophy went, who acted rightly are rewarded, while wrongdoers are punished. An illustration of this do right and get rewarded, but do wrong and get punished.

Speaker 2: 4:01

Mantra is a goal my parents gave to each child If we didn't smoke or drink and my parents were proud, outspoken teetotalers and abstain from tobacco products. Anyway, if you didn't participate in alcohol or tobacco before you were 21, on your birthday we were to receive a $100 bill. It was a milestone. It was like a rite of passage to wolf adulthood. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the winning streak of three ended with me. I'm the youngest. I did, however, get that $100 bill anyway. Why they gave it to me? Because I was being honest when I told them I hadn't reached the goal and, candidly, they never said it, but I think they knew that I hadn't met the standard.

Speaker 2: 4:55

Our house was small, maybe 1,200 square feet, but it was big enough for the six of us. It was larger than it was when I, the youngest, came along Before me. They only had about 750 square feet for the five of them. However, we managed just fine. It's funny how it didn't appear to be a small house to me until I was much older, and I wish I'd never recognized that it was smaller than I remembered Mother yes, we never called her mom or mommy stayed at home while dad did his time with a Department of Energy facility famously known for its part in the Manhattan Project and the ensuing nuclear bomb dropped twice, of course, in Japan to conclude World War II.

Speaker 2: 5:44

He was there for over 40 years, woefully underpaid and underappreciated, but he paid the bills at least most of the time. Adding braces and classes and sports to our already overwhelming expenses would sometimes throw a wrench in the precarious household finances, but again, we managed, as best I can tell, because they protected me from the financial challenges. They didn't tell us that they were strapped for money and it was difficult to make ends meet. They wanted us to have the happiest and the most worry-free life possible as children. No one talked about how stressful things were. My parents never mentioned their sacrifices. No one acknowledged their sacrifices. If they had pain, it was hidden from us. It's taught me an important lesson about strength, and that lesson has followed me throughout my life, watching them endure and faithfully do the right thing and do it as well as they could. They modeled an enviable character and fortitude, amid struggles and the inevitabilities of living in a broken world, a world where no one remains unscathed from its harsh realities.

Speaker 2: 7:07

I thank God for my parents. You know they get smarter, wiser, better every day I live. I wish they were still here. I know I will see them soon. I will see them soon, but in the meantime I need to be reminded of the gratitude and appreciation I should have for the gift God gave me in my parents. I pray you have a similar position. You're grateful, you're thankful. You look back over your childhood and say it was wonderful, I had great parents and we may not have had everything, but we had more than we need, not only financially and physically, but emotionally and spiritually. And if not, I'm sorry. I pray, if you look back and your parents weren't that great and your childhood wasn't that wonderful, that you're one that breaks the cycle and you're committed to becoming the person and parent, you wanted your parents to be, and you endeavor to help others around. You experience what would be the equivalent now of a wonderful childhood God bless.

Speaker 1: 8:21

Hello friends, If you appreciate the content and what it takes to create and deliver it, please consider a small contribution. Just go to buymeacoffeecom slash here for the memories. That's buymeacoffeecom slash here for the memories Much appreciated.