On the next to the last day, December 30th, of the last year of this decade, 2019, the thoughts of newly arriving change are finally taking hold of my mind. It has occurred to me this morning that I am going to have to retrain my pen to write “2020” when I sign my checks. And as that thought sunk in, my mind flashed back to 2009, and I realized that ten years is really a big chunk when you are already on the senior end of your life.
In 2009 we were still living on our farm, growing great fruit, and going to the Farmers Market three days a week. Life was extremely busy, we were filled with great purpose, and time flew by. We didn’t have as many great grandchildren yet, and we were yet to feel the sorrow of losing our son. But time has a way of changing things whether we are prepared for it or not. Eventually we had to pick ourselves up, look forward instead of back, and then the changes began to take place. The main part of the farm was sold to a local farmer, we had a big farm equipment sale, and we began to adjust to retirement.
Retirement is a big word when you have spent your whole life with the thoughts of pleasing people with your product, beautiful, healthy fruit. It took several years before we began to feel that it was time for us to change our way of life, at least in the wintertime. The first year we traveled to Florida, rented a mobile home and began to make new friends. By the second one we acquired our own home, and Bob started planting us some orange and tangerine trees.
But in the summers we still returned home to Michigan and our farm. Life kept on moving at its own pace and we had to adjust to it. Time has now moved on and the decade is about to come to a close.
We are still here and life is still good. Our family has sometimes become smaller, and we have grieved, but then new members have arrived and we welcome them. This morning although I have looked back, I have also begun to look forward and wonder what will happen next. One thing that I know for sure is that nothing will stay the same for long. One of the best things for me is that I have been able to express my feelings by writing and I hope that will continue for another decade.
In the meantime we will continue rising every morning, going for walks in the park, and practicing how to write “2020”. I will let “2030” wait for a later day. There will be many changes to adjust to but we are strong and we will enjoy watching them.
Month: December 2019
SIMPLE PLEASURES
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A great new subject for our class this week! Simple pleasures in my life! Thoughts come rushing thru my mind in a hurry on this one. And the first one to land right in front of me is the one that anyone who knows me is that I am an avid reader. Anything that is in print has always been my constant companion. Reading under the covers at night with a flashlight, or the glow of the corner streetlight at my bedroom window is one of my most vivid memories. As a child no one had to ask twice what I wanted for Christmas or my birthday. Luckily most of my cousins were just the same way so we did a lot of trading with each other. And fortunately my mother made sure that I got to the public library each week. So books or cereal boxes or newspapers, whatever came in front of me, I devoured. That has never changed.
Which brings me to the next big thing. Fortunately, they are both connected to each other. You might have guessed I am talking about my Ipad. I know I must have existed without it at some time, but I prefer not to look back to the Dark Ages before it. With the Ipad I can and do anything I want to, reading, studying, investing, puzzling, writing articles for my blog, working on my checkbook, paying bills: nothing much I can’t do. Whenever I get the urge for the latest one Bob is the fortunate one who inherits his next reader. He has finally found time in his life to become a great reader too. Retirement can be a wonderful thing.
But there still is another pleasure that I have indulged in this morning. For years I was the pie maker, I took great pride in my pie crust and with four growing boys, never made less than three at a time. This was just my thing and whenever we went to a potluck or picnic my pies were what I took.
But time went on, boys grew up, got married, and their wives became good pie makers. Gradually, little by little, my pie making took a different direction. Now I make one for Bob and I, slice it in 8 pieces, and it lasts for a long time. Occasionally I still take one to a sons house but it is different. Now the grandchildren are doing their share also. But this morning, I decided to make an apple pie for us. Peeling apples, adding sugar, butter, flour, cinnamon, making a big (A)on the top crust, I felt a little nostalgic about it all. As the added touch I sprinkled a little milk, sugar and cinnamon on the top crust and I thought of all the hundreds, probably thousands of pies I had made over so many years, and here I am, down to one pie, it is so simple. When I went to take it out of the oven, the house smelled so wonderful that I wished I could bottle that smell and keep it forever. Such a simple thing, the smell of a freshly baked apple pie, the juices bubbling, and yet I can still remember all of the good times when I was making three pies, and they were being devoured.
My simple pleasures are the ones that bring back the most memories and I am really grateful for all of them.
DID YOU WATCH NEIL ARMSTRONG?
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Every week at our Creative Writers class our facilitator has the duty of recommending some suggestions about interesting subjects to write about. It isn’t mandatory to do so, so if it doesn’t ring a bell for me I do a little digging into my own personal thoughts. But this one has some very personal recollections for my family and for me.
In July of 1969 our family made a big move from a house we had built ourselves on the outskirts of Muskegon, Michigan, to a small community called Holton, about 25 miles away. It involved changing schools, and driving farther to work each day. We bought a mobile home and 11 acres and a creek flowing thru it. It was just outside of Holton and it had never had electricity run to it. Getting the property all set up took longer than we had thought it would. But we moved in, did get the water installed and that was the main thing. At this time there were four half grown boys, aged 8 to 15 years.
But there was one big problem. The news was full of stories about the upcoming moonwalk and we had no electricity. This was truly an overwhelming event and we all wanted to see it. Since we had no idea when the power company was going to show up we made the decision to go shopping for a large generator. It cost $600 and we really couldn’t afford it but we did it anyway. It was very noisy when it was running so we were lucky we had no close neighbors.
So on July 20, 1969, we all gathered around our little television and watched all of the moon landing together. Outside the generator rumbled but we didn’t care, we were watching history! Watching an event with four young excited boys was a great deal in itself. Looking back is kind of a marvelous thing for a parent to do. I am going to ask those men, now in their 50s and 60s, what do they remember? Was it really a big deal to them at that time? Fifty years ago! I am sure it was. I know it was to me.
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