There’s an old folk song by Tom T. Hall called Old Dogs & Children & Watermelon Wine. The gist of this old classic is that there “ain’t” but three things in this life worth appreciating, and that’s old dogs, children, and watermelon wine. The rest is just fodder.

The story goes that Tom was working in a club and long after the crowd had gone, he took a minute to converse with the old man who was cleaning up. That old man and he began chatting about life and stuff, and the man gave his take on life and offered his opinion concerning old dogs and children and watermelon wine. Below are just a couple of lines from Tom’s song.

“Old dogs care about you even when you make mistakes;
God bless little children while they’re still too young to hate.”
When he moved away I found my pen and copied down that line
‘Bout old dogs and children and watermelon wine.

I’ve never tasted watermelon wine. I suspect it’s one of those local things that just gives you (or your memory) comfort not only for the wine, but for the memories of peaceful times with friends or family. I’ve not spent much of my adult life with children, but dear God, if only we’d never teach them to hate. I have a life full of memories of old dogs. Puppies are so cute, and dogs in their prime years are amazing with all their enthusiasm and athleticism, but God Blessed us with old dogs. They’ve seen it all. They forgive you before you screw up. You calm down and survive during life’s most stressful moments because of the example they set. God has long blessed humans with old dogs.

Remember, old dogs and children and watermelon wine.

Old Dogs

Children

Hope you all had a great holiday. One more to go.

Wayne