Life is Short

I recall in the First Grade our teacher asked us what our fathers did for a living. I could not think of what my father did for a living. He was a Minister, but surely they did not pay him to preach. So, when it came my turn, I replied that he did nothing. This got a laugh from my fellow students, but it never occurred to me that a Minister got paid. And as I grew older, I knew exactly what my Father did to put bread on the table.

But, had the Teacher asked me, what I wanted to do with my life, I would have been just as stuck for an answer. It would not come to me until the Fourth Grade that I discovered what I might want to do with my life. In the Fourth Grade I was in my third school. I had attended First Grade in Williamson, West Virginia. Then we moved to Ohio and I got set back a year and had to repeat the second Grade. I went on to the Third Grade, and then we moved to Waverly, Ohio. I was in the Fourth Grade when I made friends with Andy. Little did I know that Andy was a writer. He surprised me one day when he got up before our class and read one of his original stories. I don’t recall the plots of any of his tales but it had to do with two detective squirrels. I wish I could recall the plots, because they were interesting at the time. But it was at that moment, I knew what I wanted to do.

I have since written one children’s story, unpublished, still in a drawer. It has been kid tested. When I was working as a Janitor at a Church School, I asked the teacher if she would read my story to her Fourth Grade Class. She did, and the reaction was just as it had been when Andy read his story to our Class, they too wanted to write stories.

Now, I am retired, spent 20 years doing something I enjoyed for the most part, but now that I am retired, able to function and I want to find another line of work. When I found the book;”What Color is Your Parachute”, by Richard Bolles, it turned my world upside down. Now he has a new book out; “What Color is your Parachuute in Retirment?” I hope this book is as good as his original book.