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Reflections on my 68^th Birthday

  I can’t believe I’m that old. Sure, I feel every bit of it. But sometimes I feel like I’ve floated through this life like a butterfly on a summer breeze. And it was only yesterday when I left the cocoon. Then again it seems like half the stuff I remember happened to someone else. I’m not that person anymore, and there are serious things I really regret. It’s almost hard for me to believe I was born in the forties (well the end of them anyway). I grew up during the famous “Happy Days”. Do you realize how different things were back then from what’s going on today? Just to really bring it home, we didn’t even have TV! I remember when the first family on the block got a TV. Suddenly everyone wanted to be that little girl’s friend so we could go over and watch it. And it was all of two channels in black and white. Woo Hoo!

  The first president I remember was Dwight Eisenhower. I remember sock hops, car hops, and pinball machines. We never locked our doors and the windows stayed open all night in the summer time…no AC…just an attic fan. No AC at school either. I know you people up north are used to that, but in Southeast Texas in the summer we’re talking hot and duct tape humidity (very sticky)! Phones were huge and heavy, and there was a party line in the neighborhood. You often had to wait for a neighbor to get off the line so you could make a call. Not that we kids called anyone. Who you gonna call? All your best buds lived right there in the neighborhood. You just knocked and said, “Can Johnny come out and play?” Baseball games and football games were on just about every day in the summer and most evenings after school too.

  I remember the first transistor radio I got. Such an amazing thing and so small. I used to lay on my top bunk at night listening to music and marveling at it. And the radio station I listened to was one of the few AM stations in town…KOLE and they called it King Kole. It played a variety of music. There wasn’t a separate station for each genre like there is now. And FM radio? No that was future tech. Little did I know then that the techno age was just about to bust loose. The biggest difference from back then to now, I think, was people were more respectful and less fearful of the future. I look at society today, and it almost makes me cry to see what we’ve lost over the years. We all grew up with a sense of community then that is all but gone today. I don’t even know most of my neighbors now, and they seem to prefer it that way. Speaking of music…that whole British Invasion thing really made an impression on me. I loved Elvis, but he had to move over when the Beatles hit the scene. I remember my step-father saying that they wore wigs because a man couldn’t grow his hair that long. It just wasn’t natural. We all started growing ours to prove him wrong. He hated that.

  I remember watching the nightly news on our brand new round screen black and white TV and it was just the news. No opinions, no arguing, no talking over each other. Walter Cronkite was the man back then. But I usually missed that anyway, because my step-father insisted we get all our homework done before watching TV. School was mostly torture to me. I was so terribly shy. And I started really being attracted to girls in the fourth grade. But I could never get up the nerve to actually talk to one. So, crushes usually ended up crushing me because the girl of my dreams always got scooped up by some brainless jock. I have very few memories of elementary school. Either it was too traumatic for me to remember or that uneventful. I always made good grades without halfway trying. I was always reading and learning…I just wasn’t interested in what they wanted us to read and learn. High school was pure hell for me, and I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

  I went on my first date when I was a senior. My two best friends conspired with a girl that had her eye on me and tricked me into going to a dance with them. Bad news was, I didn’t know how to dance. But I somehow survived high school and got a job after graduation to hold me over until I left for the military. The plan was to go into the Air Force. That didn’t work out so well, because of the draft notice I got on my 19^th birthday. So, it was the ground pounding Army for me all the way for the next four years. This was during the height of the Vietnam war, so exciting times. I lucked out, though, and spent 2 years in the Republic of Panama instead. That allowed me to come home and marry the girl of my dreams (yeah I finally managed to dream the right dream!). I was 20 years old when Linda and I got married and I was still a virgin up until our wedding night. How many people can say that these days? Different times indeed.

  After having two beautiful kids and landing a great job at one of the local refineries, I thought I was on track to accomplish all my dreams. For a little icing on the cake and to use Uncle Sam’s GI Bill, I decide to also go to college. I did well in college. But it was like a circus juggler that just gets one too many plates spinning on the end of those sticks. It all came tumbling down. My life was a very traumatic roller coaster ride from that point on. I’m sure you can get the gist of it from some of the previous articles I’ve written here on this blog. So I won’t go into all that.

  But my how times have changed. People are angry so much more now. And I tend to think it’s more from a deep-seated fear brought on by our sense of impending doom. Is there doom and gloom waiting around the corner? I don’t know, but I’m not worried. One other thing that’s changed in all this time, is that I’ve discovered a deep faith and trust in God. Once I came to my faith, I didn’t change completely overnight. It was a slow, steady process. But without this transformation, I know I would not be celebrating a 68^th birthday at all. Loved ones have come and gone. I have loved them all deeply and with all my heart. Most of the older generation of my family is gone now, and it’s shocking for me to realize that I’m now the older generation. How did such a thing sneak up on me like that? Time – the ultimate school teacher. You can learn a lot given enough time, and you just pay attention. The problem with Time though is eventually, she kills all her students.

  My message to the younger generation…pay attention. Learn all you can. Learn to roll with the punches. Don’t worry so much. Tomorrow always takes care of itself. Don’t count God out of the equation. You can find Him simply by looking into the deeper mysteries of religion or science (yes science will get you there, but you have to look deep into it and be honest). Don’t fall for what passes as Religion or get caught up in the Religion of Science. Once Jesus (the best friend you always wished you had) begins to walk beside you, all that other nonsense begins to fall by the wayside. And the most important lesson of all…don’t lay up all your treasures here on Earth. You can’t take them with you. Anything you can stack one on top of another is worthless in the long run, including money. Love and memories go with you always. And your good deeds you will wear as clothing in paradise. May all of you that haven’t yet, live to see your 68^th Birthday with a smile on your face as I have. And for the younger generations – keep your arms and legs inside, seat belts buckled up, and enjoy the ride.