When I was a little girl, I used to think about what I wanted to do/be when I grew up.
I can’t recall that I ever thought about becoming 80 years old. I was too busy playing on my swing set, or making animals out of clay while sitting on the picnic table in the sun. When I became a teenager, my focus, when I wasn’t studying, was boys.
Later, after I got married, I was preoccupied with raising children, running a household and holding down a job. So, one by one, the years accrued, until now I am logging on to the beginning of my 81st year of life. As I look back on it, I see that I have packed a lot of living into those 80 years.
When I was a little girl and my family members would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would tell them four things I wanted to be. By the grace of God, I was able to do all of those things—and more!
When I was a teenager, I decided I didn’t want to get married. I liked boys, though, and the two ideologies seemed incompatible, but I did get married and raised three children.
I did a lot of traveling throughout the United States and bits of Canada. I made a solo car trip across the United States to visit friends and family, who took me to see the local sights. I have been to all of the states in the U.S., except Alaska. I have even gone on a couple of cruises--river and ocean.
I have worked with interesting people; lived around supportive neighbors; and enjoyed the company of loving friends and family.
There have been hundreds of changes since I was a child. Cars can do things we never imagined, or thought possible. Do you remember the “stick shift” and the clutch? Do you remember when the telephone was installed on the wall and you were on a party line? If you picked up the phone and heard people talking, it was your cue to hang up and try again. It was a caution not to say anything bad about anybody on your party line—or any of their friends--in case somebody would pick up their phone and overhear..
Society has changed, too. It seems that everyone I knew went to church every Sunday. We prayed in school. Everybody knew and cooperated with their neighbors. Marriage and child raising were a blessing from God and the core of American life. I am thankful to have lived this long and to have seen the changes.
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My Sweetheart, my daughter and my granddaughter are having a birthday open house for me, so we can celebrate with some of the people I have known—and some I haven’t met. So, you are invited!
The open house will be at Knox firehall in Knox PA, 514 E. Railroad Street, January 25, from 3-5 p.m. I look forward to meeting some of you. It’s great to be 80!
(No gifts, please. Your presence is my present.)
Dorothy is the author of two books—“Miles and Miracles” and “Getting It All Together “. You can purchase a book or send a comment by emailing her at dorothybutzknight@gmail.com
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