When I read someone else’s story in the Salisbury Post, a song pops up in my head, usually a country one, and a joke or two to go along with it.

Reading “My Turn: We’re in for a long hot summer” it seems, was no exception. It just took me a little longer than usual.

The first song I thought of was “Why Can’t We All Just Get A Long Neck,” but I figured the people that would get that wouldn’t read this.

So then I thought about “This Land is Your Land,” but the first line goes, “this land is your land, and this land is my land,” but then I figured the people reading this wouldn’t get that, either.

And then, and then along came a line from the song “The House That Built Me,” by Miranda Lambert.

Here goes that line: “Ma’am, I know you don’t know me from Adam.”

So in response to the writer of that dispatch on a “long, hot summer,” I would like to send out some smoke from “The Woodshed” and dedicate it to all the 16-year-old boys and girls out there.

First, let me thank the other writer for taking her stand on the rainbow sign versus the Confederate flag.

But don’t the people that love the Confederate flag and not the rainbow sign have a right to a thank you for taking their stand?

Two of the greatest people I have ever known were “white” men. One was a doctor and one was a farmer. They were both born in 1919, so they had 30 years on my before I got here. I wish you could have met them.

I understand your job is selling books, but here is something the doctor taught me many moons ago. Everything you need to know about life you can put on one page.

I thought about that when you came up with over 30 recommendations for the 16-year-old girl. I hope that won’t bust your balloon the next time you need to squeal with glee.

It reminded me of another story. This one was about a white man from Landis that went to the book store. He asked the clerk if she could direct him to the self-help books,

She said, “That would defeat the purpose.”

Well, he got so despondent he had to go see a doctor.

The doctor asked him, “How are you feeling right now?”

The white man said, “I feel like a dog.”

Doctor: “Ho0w long have you felt that way?”

And he said, “Ever since I was a puppy!”

Doctor: “Well, go ahead and get on the couch.”

White man: “Oh no! I’m not allowed on the furniture!”

If you ever sell out of the book, “Jokes to Offend Men,” maybe you could stock up on “The Butterfly Effect,” by Andy Andrews. It’s only 109 pages and should be read by every human being, whether you display the rainbow sign or fly the Confederate flag.

Here’s a couple more tidbits I want to share with you from the doctor and the farmer.

One’s on thinking and one’s on believing. From the farmer, “Sometimes when you think you’re thinking, you might not be thinking.”

From the doctor, “Just because you believe something don’t make it so.”

Back in the late 1990s, I took the farmer, who was almost 80, to the VA to get him signed up for his benefits. The clerk asked him if he was married.

He said, “I was, but my wife died.”

Clerk, “Do you have any children?”

“Not yet,” he answered, with a great big smile on his face.

Now that’s good stuff right there, no matter what flags you fly.

I have two questions for all the 16-year-old people, that should be asked in every school and every book store.

1. If littering is illegal, why is releasing balloons not illegal?
2. Why don’t they have R-rated movies in the RoCo Public Library?

As for me and my $20, I won’t be buying any signs or flags. I think I’ll buy Shama and Ella and Jake a submarine sandwich from Harris-Teeter. Or maybe buy myself some farm-fresh chicken eggs from K.C. and her Sunshine Band of Happy Hens.

In the meantime, “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink” with Merle Haggard and listen to Johnny Cash sing, “I’m Sold Out of Flagpoles,” and then watch a good R-rated movie. Maybe “A Time to Kill,” or “Mississippi Burning.”

So no matter if you’re “Only Sixteen,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Thirty-Nine and Holding” or “Middle Age Crazy,” we can all watch Birdie Pruitt in “Hope Floats” and let this sink in when she says, “Childhood is what you spend the rest of your life trying to overcome.”

Here’s one last quote to run up your flagpole from Wayne Dyer, “How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.”

I almost forgot this. The white man got pulled over on his way to the doctor.

He asked the patrolman, “Was I speeding?”

“No,” he answered.

“Well, what was I doing wrong?”

“Nothing,” he said.

“So why did you pull me over?”

“I wanted to tell you some old woman fell out of your car about two miles back down the road, and I think it might be your wife.”

“Thank God!” he said. “I thought I went deaf!”

Keep on smilin’.