High Notes 04-12-2018
"Growing old is hard work...the mind says 'yes' but the body says 'What the hell are you thinking?'"
Tim Lawrence, a retired prison guard, uses a metal detector to find treasure...a recent find was a U. S. penny dated 1882. Tim told me the coin is the oldest he's found. It is 136-years old. Tim now is a part-time guard at the Glockner family auto dealership a couple of nights a week.
"Kids today don't know how easy they have it. When I was young, I had to walk 9 feet through shag carpeting to change the tv channel".
Speaking of old, I turned 79 on April 1st, and I guess it's is about time to start bragging that "I'm in my 80th year!" When I was younger, I was reluctant to tell my age, but here I am. I've had a fatalists attitude toward age, and feel lucky that I've made it this far. My fatalism was a result of losing my father, Forest Earl (F. E.) Kegley when he was only 54 in 1959. But, I should have taken his age, his dangerous job as a railroad brakeman, and the fact that he was father to a family of ten children into consideration. Dad died on a caboose while returning from Columbus. He reportedly was offered the chance to stop the train and drive him to hospital, but he refused, thinking he could make it home. He died between Lucasville and Portsmouth.
Just a reminder...my first published book, containing several of my columns through the years, is available at "The Market Street Cafe", in Portsmouth.
