Where did that fresh faced toddler or that mugging pre teen go?
They both went along on the trip of life with the full grown man I am now.
There are times when they still shine through their old man shell and make the old man smile with the fresh outlook and craziness of youth.
The old man sometimes sees a different way to do things by using the outlook of a toddler who thinks that nothing is impossible and a new funny story comes from the guitar playing kid.
They have been with me my whole life and have contributed to the more or less happy life I have lived.
Looking ahead that preteen could not imagine himself as a card carrying Medicare man. Heck at that time there was no such thing as Medicare.
He had his mind on other things, Baseball, making an impression on that older young lady behind him, graduating from The Shrine, the latest John Wayne movie or Roy Rogers TV show, winning back his marbles from Leo, and always that fleeting moment of panic when he tried to imagine working for a living at a real job like his dad did.
Somehow I did manage to make a living and over sixty years since that first pic was taken I conquered all the fears of youth and have arrived at an appreciation of the life my parents gave me.
I never became monetarily rich and was only known to a small circle of friends and family but the life I led was uniquely mine and I would not trade it for another.
I had a loving family, the friendship of four stand up male friends, Roger, Reds, Jack and Wade plus the love of two great ladies, ary and Marlene. In that perspective I am a very rich man.
Now I stand at the start of the final stretch which may end tomorrow or stretch out for another twenty or thirty years and have very few regrets and loads of fond memories.
See ya on the other side if there is one.
