From the Memory Vault: I’ve learned that…. in Daydreaming on the Porch

  • April 2, 2026, 8:04 a.m.
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June, 25, 2005
I found an interesting book at the used books place recently, Live and Learn and Pass It On: People ages 5-93 share what they’ve discovered about life, love, and other good stuff.
I want to list a few of the kernals of wisdom contained therein, and then list a few of my own.

From the book, I’ve learned that:

  • Homemade toll house cookies should be eaten while still warm. Age 29

  • The great challenge of life is to learn what is important and to disregard everything else. Age 51

  • Almost no quality product sells for a cheap price. Age 52

  • A person is only as good as his or her word. Age 90

  • Lying in the green grass of an empty field makes you feel so good. Age 14

  • You should always take time to answer young children when they ask “why?” Age 38

  • You can keep going long after you think you can’t. Age 69

  • I have never been bored in the presence of a cheerful person. Age 63

  • Untold treasures are found in the imagination of a child. Age 30

  • If you depend on others to make you happy, you’ll be endlessly disappointed. Age 60

  • My mother sometimes laughs so hard she snorts. Age 7

  • The most creative ideas come from beginners, not the experts. Age 62

  • How people treat me is more a reflection of how they see themselves than how they see me. Age 49

  • Middle age is the best time of my life — so far. Age 50

  • You can always find time to do the things you really want to. Age 64

  • Cokes taste better in the small bottles. Age 54

My list: (Age 54)

I’ve learned that:

  • The best things in life are free.

  • A homemade apple pie with a flaky crust made with Crisco is better than anything you can buy at a store or restaurant.

  • A weather prediction of 50 percent chance of rain usually ends up being 100 percent.

  • It’s exceedingly hard, if not impossible, to maintain the best friendships of your life from long distances away.

  • Time does fly by much faster the older you get.

  • The sustained reading of a good book outweighs most of what you can read on the Internet.

  • Your family is there for you when no one else is.

  • A spectacular sunset, yellow gold and orange trees in autumn, and waterfalls all help assure me that God is at work in the creation of the universe and its myriad wonders.

  • You can’t deny that you gossip.

  • There is no better smell than sheets and pillow cases dried on the clothesline in warm summer air.

  • You never forget how refreshing a grape snow cone (we called them snowballs) or an ice-cold Nehi orange drink is on a hot summer day, decades after you last had one.

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  • Flowers are sublime.

  • A good writer is highly intelligent.

  • I can’t avoid the news.

  • A ceiling fan and a swing on a porch can beat staying indoors in an air-conditioned house all day.

  • Sad movies really do make me cry.

Parting quote: “Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach eighteen.”

Mark Twain


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