The Sentinel, Things I miss and don't miss.

      This being veteran's day, I have a story to go along with my planned post. I walked out to empty kitchen trash. I stopped at the mailbox to see what might be there. It was just junk mail. As I turned to head to the dumpster a woman close by saw me and said, "I didn't know there was mail today." I replied that I hadn't checked mine yesterday. She then said, "this is veterans day." I agreed. She then asked if I was a veteran? I said that I was. She looked closely at me and then questioned World War Two? I had to laugh, because this has happened several times this year. I know I am old, but World War Two? I was born just before the end of the war!

      This is a list of things I miss. Big gatherings at Christmas when I was a child. Joyce misses that too. I miss the wonders of being a child at Christmas. I miss sledding down the hill in front of our home back in the fifties. Snow was heavier back then and the streets weren’t plowed then. My father would come home from work and he could get up the hill on the street, but then our driveway was even steeper and that was a separate issue. He would try to get up the drive but he would lose traction and have to back up and try again. Me, I would have just parked on the street, but not him. Once he started he had to make it up that driveway. He would back up and try again and again until he got his car in the garage at the top of the driveway. It was fun to watch him. I suppose that is where I got my stubbornness to finish something once I begin something. I miss the big parties Joyce and I used to host when we were in the navy and beyond. When we were young, the fun often went on until near daybreak on weekends, especially the navy parties. The drinks brought out the sea stories, one after another and the wives got an earful of stories they never heard before. Later on after we were older the parties only lasted until 1 or 2 in the morning, but they were good too.
      I miss anchoring in the harbor and getting up in the mornings and going up on deck. The view was different every morning depending on overnight winds or shifting tides. I miss hearing the ship's bells telling the time of day, a link follows if you want to hear the sound of general quarters alarms, bosun's pipe over the main sound system (1MC ). I miss working on the flight deck with all that went on there. It is a sight to see in person in combat. There are some videos on YouTube, but they don’t compare to what went on in the sixties when nearly every plane went into the air, day or night. Night was best with the jets turning on their afterburners. Imagine fire shooting out the tail of jets at launch and then afterward as they climbed into the sky before they were finally shut off. I miss long flights and the activity that went on during radar watches throughout the night. I miss the thrill of the plane bouncing up and down as we skirted or penetrated a typhoon. It would scare the devil out of me now, but the adrenalin as a young man was almost addicting.
      I miss creating and caring for my path system through the woods on the farm and of course my daily walks through the woods there. I miss mowing on the tractor. My mind was crystal clear and ideas would come flooding into my head.
      Things I don’t miss. Leaving Joyce and Annie to go on cruises, missing Christmas at home 4 years in a row and one more afterward due to going on another cruise for uncle Sam’s navy. Shore Patrol with 12 hour shifts or even longer. Master at Arms duty, underway replenishment working parties that weren’t a real party with drinking and laughter, working night shifts in the navy and afterward in civilian life. I don't miss grocery shopping on a $20 budget. Not many people alive could remember that, but then we have been around living on minimal navy pay, commercial air travel or military transport flights, negotiating prices on car purchases. Last of all going to funerals; I have had my share of them and do not want to go through that again, unless it is my or Joyce’s own funerals. I still miss those who have passed during my lifetime and don’t want another person to miss while I am still alive.