OK Solberg: 00:00

I wanna again welcome you to the 4:05 Coffee Break. Guys, new week. Get you a cup of coffee. You know the routine. Glass iced tea, bottle of water, blah blah blah.

OK Solberg: 00:08

Why is he always do that? Let's see what's happening. Spring wheat $5.11 a bushel. It's going down. Harvest is here.

OK Solberg: 00:18

To be honest with you, 550 pound steer calf are not selling at this time, so here's the price of a 946 pound steer calf. $3.32 a pound. Multiply that out, it equates to $3,140.72 I hope to shout, I'm happy for all y'all. I miss the cattle market, I miss the cattle business, but I'm glad it's doing well. Put your hog in Iowa, 61¢ a pound, and a fat lamb that weighs a 100 pounds will fetch you a dollar 97.

OK Solberg: 00:59

But, guys, there's more, much more. Okay. I'm gonna start with a bible passage, and it's my favorite passage from the book of Proverbs. Ready? Listen now.

OK Solberg: 01:11

Two things I ask of you. Deny them not to me before I die. Remove far from me falsehoods and lying. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Proverbs 30 verses seven and eight.

OK Solberg: 01:27

Did you hear it? Two things only do I want. I don't wanna be a liar, so people trust me. And I don't want too much or too little. Sometimes, guys, I wonder if we have too much.

OK Solberg: 01:45

I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure we border on having too much. There's nothing, nothing like an empty stomach or an empty checkbook to motivate a person to do things. I grew up in a time when we didn't have too much, but we had enough. I didn't ever remember, ever remember going hungry. There was always something to eat, but we certainly didn't have a surplus of money, and because of that, we did hands on things.

OK Solberg: 02:18

I grew up when there was a live band at all the dances because kids made their own garage bands. Now remember, I couldn't go to dances, but that doesn't mean I didn't know there were live bands there. I peaked in a time or two. Kids who love music got together with their friends and put a band together in their garage. And yes, we grew up with great music and that too was a motivator.

OK Solberg: 02:45

Then you've heard me tell over and over about the cars, from the '56 Chevy Bel Air to the '55 Ford Thunderbird. Oh, the list includes the Ford Mustang and the Chevy Impala and Chevelle. The Dodge Charger to the Pontiac GTO, too many to mention. But I want you to picture this in your mind's eye. Back in the nineteen seventies, right here in good old Malta, Montana, right here in Malta, there was a guy I know who had a 1964 GTO, and he had a hankering to use the 389 engine from the GTO and install it in a 1956 Chevy two door hardtop.

OK Solberg: 03:33

Now what was the verse I shared? Didn't it say, give me neither poverty nor riches? What a great thing to not have riches. Well, the guy in Malta wanted to install that 389 into his 1956 Chevy two door hardtop. So what'd he do?

OK Solberg: 03:53

Did he hire a mechanic? No, sirree, Bob. He borrowed a cherry picker from a friend here in town and in front of his house, not in his garage, in front of his house on the streets in Malta, Montana. With that cherry picker, he pulled out the engine and transmission from the '64 GTO and swapped it into the '56 Chevy. Guys, there were shade tree mechanics everywhere.

OK Solberg: 04:21

Oh, we can do it ourselves. Now, when's the last time you saw a cherry picker holding an engine and transmission as it drove the streets of Malta, Montana? And I know, us old guys, our grandparents probably said the same thing about us. They just drive those cars and never climb into the saddle and break a bronc anymore. I understand that times change.

OK Solberg: 04:47

Isn't it written in the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D. C. Where it says, I'm not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered, and manners and opinions change, well, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy has civilized society to remain ever under the regime of their barbarous ancestors, end of quote.

OK Solberg: 05:38

Now, you might think I'm crazy. You might think I made a big jump to go from a cherry picker in the streets of Malta to a quote in the Jefferson Memorial. But I see a huge correlation. We all know changes will come. They're before us every day, and with the changes, we must change.

OK Solberg: 06:00

Yet, I still miss some of the hands on stuff that used to happen. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure it's because we have become too fat and sassy. Just saying. So after you're done listening to this episode, would someone please, would someone please put their cherry picker out on the street just to make Orvin happy? So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.