Community Matters

For as long as I can remember, my dad has solved a daily crossword puzzle. Or two. During a recent visit, I awoke early in the morning, walked into my parents' dining room area, and found my dad solving the day's puzzles. When he got a little stumped, we worked together to complete the answers. It was fun, this time together doing nothing of major significance. Yet it felt pretty significant. I realized then it’s the seemingly insignificant things that matter most. The simple things we often forget to notice.

My dad and I chatted about random nothingness while we solved the puzzles. One of the puzzle's answers had to do with running a tab, the way people used to do before credit cards existed.

My dad reminisced about when he was a little boy, maybe eight or ten years old, and he'd go to the local corner grocery store to buy a 5-cent bag of peanuts. He’d tell the merchant to put the purchase on his dad’s “tab.” Of course 5 cents was a lot of money back then, so he wasn’t allowed to do that very often. But he still remembers the shop owner’s name—Tony Martorana. Seventy-some years later, he still remembers. Because people took the time to know each other.