SPEECHES

Mom ran a weekly newspaper. She covered all the local news, both writing and photographing. I was nine when she started, and I absolutely hated meetings and speeches, but I had to go along with her a lot of the time. By age ten, I think I could have taught a course on how to outline a speech. Some speakers laid out their points and even numbered them for you - and I sat there calculating how much time it would have cut off their speech if they had just gotten on with it! Some spent half of their speech telling you what they were going to talk about. Some started their speech with a lot of jokes, and it was a blessing when they were actually funny. Some repeated themselves several times, like you didn’t get it the first time! Preachers are especially bad about this. Some read their speech and never looked up. I guess they were as sleepyAnd none of them knew when to quit. If they said it was going to be short, look out! It was miserable, but I accepted it as a fact of life. “Have Gun, Will Travel” (remember Paladin?) was a popular TV show at the time. Well, my motto was “Have Mamma, Will Travel.” She got a kick out of that.