Years ago one of the favorite things a politician would do is hire some local folks to work in his office and their only job was to help retirees fill out applications for their Social Security. That was because of two reasons; there were a lot of slick talking politicians and people didn’t have access to computers.

Actually, anyone could fill out the proper paperwork, but the elected officials had everyone believing only they could get things on the fast track.

No so today!

If you have a computer and can check a few boxes, applying for your SS benefits is as simple as A, B, C.

Uh, well, that is if you have only had one spouse.

The first three or four pages were pretty quick. Name, address, Social Security number, how much did you make last year. You know, the simple stuff.

We were breezing right along until we came to the next page. Have you ever been married before? was the question. Well, yeah, we were. So, the questionnaire asked, when were you married and to whom.

We remembered the to whom, but dang if we remember the date of the ceremony and where it took place. That was 40 years ago or better. Shucks, we can’t even remember what happened last week, much less 40 years ago.

So, we guessed!

Then the government wants to know: When did you get a divorce, and where?

WHAT?

The rest of this article can be read in this week's edition of The Cadiz Record.