Things are much easier today

Bob Fuller, Bullhead City, Ariz.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014 | 2 a.m.

The letter “America is in bad shape nowadays” was interesting, but my memory is very different.

I’m 83 years old, so we grew up about the same time. I spent the summers on my grandparents’ farm in Wisconsin. There was no electricity and no running water, so there was no plumbing.

My grandmother cooked on a wood stove. My mother was a single parent and had a difficult time earning a living.

The grammar school provided free lunches to a hungry kid. There were no school buses, and I walked to school in all kinds of weather, even below zero.

My buddies and I scrounged for metal to get enough money to go to the movies. I had to work nights so I could finish high school and support my mother. I worked on a chicken ranch in Daggett (near Barstow) when I was 13. This was during the war, so they waived child labor laws. In 1948, there weren’t many jobs, so I enlisted in the Air Force.

We are so much better off today.