Mom and Pop in Ecstasy

Mom and Pop in Ecstasy

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

note- see also proclaim thee the light of the Lord January blog

start

Many a Family had prospered in the Old way because The Company,  The Good-Year , here in Akron in it's Paternalism provided a bountiful steady Pension to retirees long after their productive years had passed.

As former director in honor of Old customs I was afforded a special seat at the emergency meeting to discuss the upcoming merger and specifically to announce the drastic cuts in the employee retiree pensions necessitated by changes in the Tire industry. A foreign ownership was changing the Good- Year forever and with the drastic cuts coming in the newly merged company many retirees would not make it because of the inflation and stag-flation now ravishing our economy.

I remembered Mom and Pop Fincher well; he worked in truck assembly and she was once a pretty girl in the secretarial pool. That was fifty years ago but I remember he liked to fish and she was a Saint of a woman.

Mom Fincher was riding on a small Donkey as Pop lead her slowly into our retirement meeting. To light the dark room Pop lit Mom on fire and then himself as a silent statement to protest the cuts in the Pension plan for older workers. Like many others they feared that they wouldn't be able to make it if their pension was lowered what with rising prices for everything here in Akron; Property taxes alone were up ten per cent year over year and another Public school levy was planned for the spring.

As a director I was honored and privileged to attend the special merger meeting so I read again my copy of the retirement proposal carefully there in the flickering, crackling light.

Yes old Mom Fincher was a saint of a woman and I should have called Pop Fincher more often to fish after our retirement. But time passes so quickly, one never has enough time to get to the truly important things in life, like fishing.