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| 1974 AMC Gremlin |
“Mikie…just who do you think you are!” That was the response of my
frustrated grandmother when I, at age fifteen, would talk about my plans to go
to college.
I can still hear her utilitarian Tennessee accent as she pronounced
“Mikie” with a long, tall, and lingering “”I”.
She meant no discouragement or insult.
She believed that college was the path of the children of wealthy
folk.
She was not aware of the Federally Guaranteed Student Loan program
of which I made use and eventually completed a bachelor’s degree, and then
later graduate work.
My grandmother, having survived through the Great Depression, was
convinced that I was walking around with my head in the clouds and would amount
to nothing if I did not get my occupational thoughts closer to the ground.
She would often quote, in King James propriety, Proverbs 11: 2 “ When
pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.”
Risk-taking also was thought of as poor
stewardship of time and financial resources if you were not wealthy.
Investments in securities, like college, was the realm of the well-to-do.
Dumping all of your savings into a business was just that “dumping”.
Again, it was her experience during the Depression
that caused her to have that assessment of who got to do certain things in
life.
Though my grandmother was not fully informed of
the ways and means of gaining a college education, investing in securities and
business ventures, still, her advice to “know your proper place” and live humbly
rather than pridefully has helped me often in life.
As my grandmother was fond of Biblical Proverbs,
so am I.
Proverbs 29: 11 A fool gives full vent to his
spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.
I am careful to restrain the impulse to react and “speak
my mind” in situations because I have discovered that an immediate emotional
reaction probably is not my truest thought on the matter. I prefer to gather
information, research and then formulate a response that is useful rather than
merely argumentative.
I am careful about making financial investments and will not do so motivated
by the greed of easy money.
I am careful to make financial investment that is
practical rather than flashy.
The photo of the 1974 AMC Gremlin has a story…
As I went looking for an automobile after high-
school I was considering a 1974 Dodge Challenger. Sharp car, pretty color. It
was a great attention-getting car…for $4200( a lot of cash at the time).
But then that “Just who do you think you are” message
clicked in.
I purchased the practical AMC Gremlin for $2000
without even needing a car loan to do so.
To this day I am influenced in my daily
decision-making and relating to others in the world by that advice offered by
my grandmother.
I begin each day with the humbling personal, social,
and financial anchor…
“Mikie, just who do you think you are!?”
