Category: Life Lessons

I enjoy playing cards.  I got the bug from my parents. Mom played pinocle with a group of friends for several years.  They rotated the host site from lady to lady. They played for a few hours and ate fancy snacks and desserts. When they played at our house, my sisters and I got the …

The Parkinson support group helped both Mom and Dad learn what to expect from the disease.  They knew he wasn’t going to “get better” because there’s no cure. He could “live better” if he followed the advice of his doctors and adjusted as he aged.  They learned people didn’t die from Parkinson’s, but rather with …

The first gun I owned was a single shot BB gun that my Uncle Elmer gave me. He was my Aunt Dutch’s husband. I was about eight or nine and he made me promise to be careful with it. “Don’t point it at anyone. Just shoot at targets.” He backed up his warning by pushing …

I began what I expect to be the fourth quarter of my life last Sunday.  I turned 75.  I’ve reached an age when I see someone who says, “It’s good to see you.”, I reply, “It’s good to be seen.” My parents had a professional photographer take my picture to mark my first year.  My hair …

When I landed my job in Addison, I spent a lot of time on the phone. I didn’t realize how many calls I’d have to field each day. The first several weeks I was inundated with vendors who hoped to strike up a relationship that would lead to future contracts. When I moved on to …

I’m not sure who came up with the idea of senior pranks, but I’m not a fan.  As a former school superintendent, I never thought they were funny, and some were expensive to handle. The common explanation students offer up to justify their “pranks” at the end of their senior year is “we’re just having …

When Ruth and I established our home on Kalamazoo’s Stockbridge Avenue, it didn’t have a shower and we were shower people.  Sure, I had taken baths when there was no other option, but now that we were married, we needed a shower. I purchased the two-unit house before we wed, so I had to learn …

Ruth and I went to a concert a few days ago.  It was a dual tribute to Bette Midler and Billy Joel.  I like their music, especially Billy’s, so I bought tickets as a part of Ruth’s birthday extravaganza.  Like always, I sang along to most of the songs, doing my best to keep it …

This post is not PG.  If you’re put off by questionable topics, move on now. This is not for the faint at heart.  David and Lindsay, Mike and Kate, don’t let my grandchildren read this until they’re at least twenty-one. Ruth and I have had a Florida home for the past eighteen years.  I was …

I ran into this chart from 1971 the other day.  Ruth and I married that year, and we both bought new cars, so it struck a chord with me. We were in our third year of teaching and making about $7,500 each.  It may have been a bit more, but it wasn’t as high as …