Category: Life Lessons

Our first summer as a married couple, Ruth and I lived on Kalamazoo’s Stockbridge Avenue, and I decided to plant a garden.  I’d never planted one before but thought it couldn’t be that difficult, so I dug up a ten-by-ten patch of earth behind our garage.  I just turned over the soil, did my best …

I had my first interaction with a transexual during the early 80’s.  I was the middle school principal in Addison and a mom made an appointment with me to discuss transferring her son to our school.  She came into my office and took a seat. She explained she wanted to transfer her son to Addison …

I’ve been thinking about my dad a lot. He lived to be seventy-nine and a half. I’m four and a half years short of his mark. Although I made a deal with my mom to live at least as long as she did, there’s no guarantee I’ll make another eighteen years. That’s the goal, but …

My cousin, Gene, was a big brother to me.  He was four years older, so he passed several of his discoveries on to me.  When I was nine, he asked me if I still believed in Santa Claus.  I did because I knew my mom and dad wouldn’t buy the things I received from Santa.  …

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 …