The Ice Man

As we sat around the dinner table my grandfather explained life as a boy. He would sell newspapers to make extra money and could not afford the five cents to take the bus back home. He would ride his bike in the cold, in the snow, in the rain, in the wind, and in the heat.

He explained how the ice man would come to the family home and sell a piece of ice for five cents . My grandmother chimed in, " We had to buy ice from the ice man too. Every one did. " It seemed like a light bulb went off in her mind as she looked at my cousins and I and said, " Your grandfather and I lived in the same town , at the same time, and our fathers had similar jobs , his father's maybe better than mine; yet he grew up poor and I did not. Or at least I never KNEW I was poor."

The same boiling water that softens potatoes hardens eggs. Your attitude and the attitude of those around you define your life, not your circumstances.