The Only Constant in Life is Change

When I was less than a week old, my parents took me on a road trip to Saskatchewan to meet my maternal grandparents.  My dad drove and my sat in the back seat. I was in the front passenger seat in a laundry basket. 

If that had happened today, well, it wouldn't happen today.  No one would put an infant in a laundry basket and drive a vehicle.  Never mind the law, people would just never do it. 

When I was born, my parents owned a gas station.  At that time, people had bigger families and station wagons were very popular. One hot summer day, my dad was pumping gas for a station wagon and he felt something warm on his legs.  It turned out there was a hole drilled in the back of the station wagon for the boys to relieve themselves of urine.  When my dad told that story, it was very hilarious. 

Speaking of my dad, I idolized him. But, he wasn't perfect.  When I was a child, seat belts were not mandatory. Lots of similarities to the mask debate today.  Seat belts were strongly encouraged but not mandatory.  My dad used to wear a seat belt consistently - until they became mandatory.  It was declared mandatory by a Premier that he didn't support and my dad took it personally.  He went to his doctor, who was one of his close friends, and got a medical exemption to wear a seat belt.  And, he stopped wearing his seat belt.  None of us were supportive of him.  I think note said that he had high blood pressure and the seat belt would be too constrictive and lead to serious health complications. 

Initially, he was proud of the note and told people about it.  My mom wouldn't drive with him or drive him unless he was wearing a seat belt.  My dad raised me to be a spitfire and one of the consequences of that is that I speak my mind.  I told my father I thought he was being irresponsible.  We, of course, didn't want my dad to experience any harm, but we were also secretly hoping he would be stopped for not wearing a seat belt to see how the note was going to go over. 

After a few months, my dad started wearing his seat belt again and destroyed the note.  I think the turning point for him was the overwhelming evidence that seat belts save lives.  It wasn't the political issue that he had thought.  The Premier wasn't plotting ways to make his life miserable. 

So, I know that twenty years from now, my grandson will be writing a blog.  Well, it probably won't be a blog but it will be some way for him to communicate to the world.  At that time, wearing masks will be as natural as wearing a seat belt.  The only difference is he won't be able to talk about how his grandpa wouldn't wear a mask. 

Things change. 

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