By DAN LANGFORD

In these times of national economic woe, a reminder from the agricultural days of the Old South might be worth resurrecting: “Don’t eat the seed corn.”  Ears of corn held back at each harvest were dried and stored for planting the following spring.  Any family who ate its seed corn either did so under the direst of economic circumstances, or was totally and completely feckless.  “Don’t eat the seed corn” means don’t live beyond your means; don’t exhaust your savings.  My next-door-neighbor, who happens to be my ninety-year-old great aunt, puts it a little differently:  “I’ve been bent several times in my life, but I’ve never been broke.”  Not ever eating the seed corn has enabled her to say this in her old age.  May we younger folks be so wise.