I was wondering what ever happened to all the people I have known? The number must be a thousand or more. My 11 years in the navy there were hundreds of men and their families that I knew. During my 3.5 years on instructor duty I met over 20 students every 2-3 weeks. Instructors were always coming in or leaving the base for sea duty. Onboard aircraft carriers there were men coming into the squadron replacing those who left. After the navy I met a large number of people while working on TV sets for 3 years. I knew dozens more while working at Burroughs in San Diego. During our casino days we met and played cards with dozens more people. Working at Litton there were more people that I met and worked with there. I can’t begin to count how many different people I have known.
Now how many people do I know today? Perhaps 30 if that many. How many do I see and speak with every day? Only 1, myself. I have to talk to myself to keep my vocal chords working. If I didn’t do that I would lose the ability to speak. It has taken me 1.5 years to become accustomed to living alone and I am perfectly fine with that. It’s the only time in my 78 years that I have lived alone. There are advantages to living alone; I only have to do what I want and not have to consider what anyone else may want to do. If I want to change my surroundings I can and do change things. If I want to do nothing all day long, it’s okay because no one is dependent upon me to do something they want or need. I live by my daily routine and that is good. I eat what I want, when I want; I drink my beer and no one is counting how many I drink. Some days I don’t drink at all. I sleep when I want, I exercise, meditate, pray when I want to do so. Sometimes I make up something to do just to keep busy; if I’m busy I don’t think about the sad, bad times I’ve had. I tend to think more about the good times in life and that’s a good thing to think about.
My synchronicity was working this week. As I thought about all the people I have met in my lifetime, I had been considering writing about that for a week. During the week I had twice thought of a woman friend from my days at Litton. I don’t know why her face came to mind. I hadn’t seen her since 2016 when Joyce and I were shopping in Walmart here. Yesterday she saw me in Walmart barely 30 feet away from where I last saw and spoke with her. I was headed to pick up one last item before leaving the store when she called my name as we passed barely 2 feet away from each other. She wasn’t sure if it was me and I had to stare at her for a half minute before I recognized her. We ended up talking for an hour in Walmart. We have both aged and while she still looks attractive, I look like a skinny old fart with a face that could stop a clock. I have to look at my face every day in the mirror and even the mirror keeps clouding up so it doesn’t have to look back at me. The mirror is your friend when you are young, it’s not a friend when you get old. It reminds you of how old you are every day and it is brutally accurate!
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