The older I get (and I AM getting a lot older, it seems) the more help I need, and my fellow Holdenville High School alumnus Barbara Gordon Cummins is always ready to help me out. We have a lot in common in addition to being HHS grads, the most notable being both of us are from big families.

Following Anheuser-Busch’s embrace of a mentally ill man pretending to be a woman as the face of Bud Light, conservatives across the country showed their displeasure by boycotting the beer brand, causing Bud Light to lose more than $5 billion in market capitalization in the last week.

RETREAT PARENTS DO THESE 5 THINGS I know, I know. You read the title of the column and did an eye roll, right? You’ve heard this kind of thing before. Three easy steps to parenting. How to be a SuperMom or Dad. You know from experience there isn’t an easy recipe to parenting other than: feed ‘em, transport ‘em, and do your best to keep ‘em out of jail.

They seem to be everywhere in any town you drive through. Signs promoting the services of a local ‘TAROT CARD READER,’ ‘FORTUNE TELLER,’ and ‘PALM READER’ seem to be on every block. Look online and there are also the online psychics - the “Call me, and I’ll tell you your future” people. And don’t forget, most newspapers run daily horoscopes that are available to the ‘seekers.’ Evidently the practice of predicting the future has proved to be a lucrative business in our country. But why trust a person to predict your future, when they have to ask you your name? Shouldn’t a psychic already know it?

You may not have this noted on your calendar, but April 27 is the official “Take your son or daughter to work day”. Not only that, but there is a national nonprofit organization and a website, committed to the day: sonsanddaughterstowork.

Compared to my dad’s life, I had a life of ease. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade to join the CCC, was a war veteran going through hell when he was 18 years old. Returned home with no education or job and became a roughneck since that is all he could find.

Friday the 13th missed it by one day in April but it was close enough to send some bad luck going around, so I decided to put it off a month but the bewitching atmosphere of that special occasion lingers on. Here’s a list of a few who didn’t escape the curse.

You are in the middle of some kind of project around the house – mowing the lawn, putting in a new fence, painting the living room, or whatever. You are hot and sweaty, covered in dirt or paint. You have your old work clothes on. You know the outfit – shorts with the hole in the crotch, old T-shirt with a stain from who knows what, and an old pair of tennis shoes.

A robber breaks into an old couple’s house at night. The couple confronts him and he pulls out his gun.

Saw the movie “THE JESUS REVOLUTION” yesterday. Amazing how seeing scenes and hearing phrases from decades before can instantly transport a person back in time.