The "Silver Spoons" Curse

There’s a thunderstorm going on outside right now.  That means writing on
the computer is probably the last thing I should be doing.  When you are a
writer, however, you write when you feel the urge and that time is now. 
From a young age my mother taught my siblings and me to like and even enjoy
thunderstorms.   We lived in a house right on Lake Erie.  When
the storms started, we would sit on our three season porch and watch the waves
slam against the break wall.  The entire house shook and the lightning tore
through the sky like a conductor’s baton tipped with electricity.  Often
the power would go out and we would rely on old kerosene lanterns so we could
continue to play cards.  The storm became a backdrop or sound effect. 
There was always a pot of tea and maybe some cookies.  We actually looked
for the biggest waves or debris floating in the water and cheered for
them.  Though the wall was only twenty feet from the house, we felt totally
safe.  Mom was an excellent singer who studied music in college.  She
would often sing us a tune as we watched the festivities.  Funny how a
little thunder in the Great Plains can take me back to singing at the
lake.  Then there was the “Silver Spoons Curse”.  There was a sitcom
called “Silver Spoons” that we rarely watched.  During one storm my brother
and I decided to watch television and it was the only thing on.  Suddenly
lightning struck the power lines and something in the T.V. blew.  My father
repaired sets as a hobby and ordered new parts to replace the burned out
ones.  It took months but finally the set was working again.  That day
a storm blew in but we were anxious to watch the T.V.  So we turned it on
and guess what was on?  That’s right.  “Silver Spoons” was coming
on.  Suddenly the house was zapped again and the T.V. blew for good. 
We determined through scientific observation that God did not like “Silver
Spoons” and never watched it again.  Some things simply are not meant to
be.