By Jim Hagarty
2011
When our kids were very young I was often distressed at the way our home looked as though someone had thrown a grenade in the front door and ran away.
I complained about this to my older sister Betty and said I was on a tear to get rid of clutter. Having raised three kids of her own, she advised me not to get rid of absolutely everything as kids will make playthings out of the most ordinary “junk”. I took her advice and was glad I did.
And now, though I would still like a perfect house, there are many compromises that come about because of considerations like that. I need to fix the screen door on the back of our house but because it is kind of weak and past its prime, the cats are able to open and close it to let themselves in and out. If I repaired it or put on a new one, that would be the end of that. And we get a kick out of hearing the back door slam when Mario has made another hasty exit.
Same thing in the garage. We have old-type windows which we can prop open with a stick and the cats can vault through to let themselves in. If we put in proper double-hung, double-pane windows with good screens there will be no more cats flying through windows.
So, I have a feeling as long as they’re around, our palace will always have a few useful flaws.
