Uncle Harry still lives with his parents. It seems strange to be living off his folks after all these years. He was born in Manoa in 1907 and has a couple kids! You’d think that he’d be self-sufficient by now. But not Uncle Harry. You see, he’s been a little spoiled.
Uncle wants to make his own decisions on running the household and he’s always telling others what to do. But he still wants his parents to pay the bills — and they do, but sometimes it isn’t enough to satisfy him. Uncle then mooches off distant relatives.
It’s not that Uncle couldn’t take care of himself if he really tried. He’s had lots of education. In fact he’s helped others get jobs in all sorts of occupations that people willingly pay for: doctors, lawyers, businessmen & women, social workers, architects, scientists, and even athletes. He’s keen on telling people about self-discipline and hard work. And he urges everyone to get a job to become self-supporting. But Uncle Harry just can’t ever get around to supporting himself.
You would think that people wouldn’t take him too seriously. But they do. They listen to him all the time. He’s invited to dinners and ceremonies and he gives speeches telling everyone how to run their lives, even though he’s got plenty problems of his own.
Recently he’s been getting pretty upset with his folks telling him how to behave so now he says he wants “autonomy.” Yup. He says, “Just give me the money and don’t tell me how to spend it.” He’s pretty stubborn and he’ll probably get his way.
Poor old Uncle Harry. Poor old U.H.
”’Ken Schoolland is a resident of Waipahu and can be reached via email at:”’ mailto:schoollak001@hawaii.rr.com