Tennessee Ernie Ford Quotes

All of us kids walked home for lunch, anxious to see our moms and grandmas. Lunch would be waiting and the television, which I so loved, was always set to “The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show.” When he signed off with “God bless your pea-picking hearts!” I was out the door and back to my friends for the walk back to school. A better place to raise a family could never have been found. The milkman delivered quite a few quart glass bottles with the cream for coffee floating on top. A Wonder Bread delivery man lived next door. He delivered only to stores, but would bring us cute miniature loaves of bread once in a while. The scissors and knife sharpener man made his rounds. Grandma loved to work with sharp scissors and admonished us, “Don’t ever cut paper with my shears, it dulls the blades.” I felt sorry for the poor Fuller Brush man since my Mom never would buy anything, but she’d take the free samples. Maybe he just liked talking to my Mom who loved to talk. My favorite was the Good Humor ice cream truck, of course.

The truth is, if we don’t take responsibility for our growth, it won’t happen. Growth is not automatic. if you believe it simply comes with age, you might turn out like the subject of singer and comedian Tennessee Ernie Ford’s comment, “He started out at the bottom, and sort of liked it there.” Personal growth works exactly opposite to compounding interest in a bank account. If someone deposits a sum of money into an account the day you were born, the way to make it grow it not to touch it. But when it comes to your potential, you must tap into to it to make it grow.