WHAT HAPPENED???

My campus

It just dawned on me that I am older than my father and my grandfather when they died. They were old men and I was the kid. I still feel the kid mantle when I think of them and often think about what they would say while doing a chore that they did.

Often, I will cook and think of my mother and grandmother and although they lived in their mid to late 90’s, I see a vision of them telling me what I should do or shouldn’t do while I knead my pasta dough.

Grandma was a mental mentor

When did I become so ancient? What happened? I clearly remember having to listen to the grownups and thinking I’m only a kid. Yet, as I do what I do I still listen to them somehow as they whisper to me. There are times when something will happen and say to myself: “Gee, I wish mom could see this” or “I wonder what Grandma would think.” Lonely is the heart that grows older, but if I have a soul then I can at least have a friend.

What scares me the most now is the realization that it is 50 years ago that I graduated from college, a year before to the day that I got married! I felt that the world was so large and overbearing that I would have to be diligent and mindful for the rest of my life.

These two are always great to listen to!

People knee everything and I knew nothing. My professors warned me in college to look for this and do that and my bosses in the work world warned me to forget what I ever learned, that this was for real.

Did I learn anything? Yes, that I still know very little but to apply what I do know and don’t bite off more than I can chew. Luckily for me, I had some great teachers, my grandparents, and parents, friend and relatives, strangers, and my children, who seem to always correct me and bring me up to date!

OK, I’m an old out-dated man who is up to date and can’t do anything about it.