A Precocious Child

Old Dog must have been a precocious child, completing high school by the age of 16 and finishing grad school in six weeks. Ken and I were in an advanced placement group in high school, but it was nothing like that. They called it the "Honors Program", it was experimental, and I don't think it lived up to anybody's expectations.

I still have my old report cards and some other junk from school, but not because I saved it. After our mother died, my sister came across it while sorting through her stuff. We both had no use for it and were surprised that my mom had saved it all those years. My sister said that, even though it doesn't mean much to us, it must have meant something to our mother, and suggested that maybe we should keep it for awhile. I put my share in one of those plastic storage bins that they sell at places like Walmart. Since it was going into the garage, which is a dusty place because that's where our wood burning furnace is located, I sealed the lid on with duct tape all around. After I and my hypothetical wife die, our daughter can decide what to do with it.

I suppose the military has changed a lot since the 60s. For one thing it's all volunteer, so nobody has to deal with it at all if they don't want to. In our day, every male had to deal with it in one way or another, either you went in on your own terms, or on their terms, or you had to find some way to evade it. I wonder what it's like growing up and not even having to think about it. For another thing, they have women and gays right in with everybody else. I don't know how that works as far as sleeping and bathroom arrangements. In the movie, "Private Benjamin" with Goldie Hawn, the women had separate barracks, but they mingled with the guys for training purposes. I suppose that would work, but what do they do with the gays? If they bunk with the regular guys, wouldn't it be like putting them in the women's barracks? I suppose they could bunk with the women, but that doesn't seem  right either. I'll have to look that up one of these days. One thing's for sure, if they ever have the draft again, they're going to have to draft women and gays too. I wonder how that will go over!

Ken, how am I throwing my vote away by voting for a third party or independent candidate? I don't like Trump, and I'm certainly not going to vote for Hillary. The only alternative would be to not vote at all, and that would really be throwing my vote away.