A wise old gentleman retired and purchased a modest home near a junior high school. He spent the first few weeks of his retirement in peace and contentment. Then a new school year began. The very next afternoon three young boys, full of youthful, after-school enthusiasm, came down his street, beating merrily on every trash can they encountered. The crashingpercussion continued day after day, until finally the wise old man decided it was time to take some action. The next afternoon, he walked out to meet the young percussionists as they banged their way down the street.<\/p>\n
Stopping them, he said, \u201cYou kids are a lot of fun. I like to see you express your exuberance like that. In fact, I used to dothe same thing when I was your age. Will you do me a favor? I\u2019ll give you each a dollar if you\u2019ll promise to come around everyday and do your thing.\u201d The kids were elated and continued to doa bang-up job on the trashcans. After a few days, the old-timer greeted the kids again, but this time he had a sad smile on his face. \u201cThis recession\u2019s really putting a big dent in my income,\u201d he told them. \u201cFrom now on, I\u2019ll only be able to pay you 50 cents to beat on the cans.\u201d The noisemakers were obviously displeased, but they accepted his offer and continued their afternoon ruckus. A few days later, the wily retiree approached them again as they drummed their way down the street. \u201cLook,\u201d he said, \u201cI haven\u2019t received my Social Security check yet, so I\u2019m not going to be able to give you more than 25 cents. Will that be okay?\u201d \u201cA lousy quarter?\u201d the drum leader exclaimed. \u201cIf you think we\u2019re going to waste our time, beating these cans around for a quarter, you\u2019re nuts! No way, mister. We quit!\u201d And the old man enjoyed peace and serenity for the rest of his days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A wise old gentleman retired and purchased a modest home near a junior high school. He spent the first few weeks of his retirement in peace and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n