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Free Is Fun

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Free Is Fun - jim Young “I don’t care how much money you have, free stuff is always a good thing.” Queen Latifah I am proud of my Scottish Heritage. And at the risk of perpetuating a myth let me just say “Free” is my second favourite four letter word. It seems there was a lot more free stuff when I was young. Post-war manufacturing growth and the new medium of television brought about inventive marketing strategies to combat fierce competition. This ultimately resulted in free giveaways and mail-in prizes to encourage brand loyalty. The brand loyalty concept didn’t really work on me though. As a youngster during the 50s and 60s my only loyalties lay with whatever flashy give-away toy caught my eye as I followed my mother down the aisles of the grocery store. And there were a lot of them to choose from. One of my favourites that comes to mind was the small plastic submarines that used to come in boxes of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. After filling them with baking soda and dropping them into a...
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Published In The Great North Arrow, September 1, 2025: An Open Letter To My Children... I'm Dead

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An Open Letter To My Children… I’m Dead - jim Young, “To begin with, Marley was dead… dead as a door nail.” - Charles Dickens It’s been almost 10 years since my sister and I were charged with settling our parents’ estate. Some of the challenges are still fresh in my mind. And just as I wanted to avoid the mistakes my parents made in raising me when I became a parent, so too do I want to avoid the mistakes my parents made with the instructions they left me when they left this world as I prepare now to follow them. My children deserve new and better mistakes on my part and damn it - that’s what they’ll get! So the following is an open letter to my children in the hopes it will make the challenges they will one day face a little easier. If you’re reading this, I’m dead. Well not necessarily “this” . If you’re reading “this” it just means you’re reading something I’ve published online or in the Great North Arrow or something like that. So thanks for following me and reading my stuff. I’...
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