Thoughts brought on when listening to and viewing a retirement card from a neighbor

An instrumental version of The Bear Went Over the Mountain tune played when I opened the card. That was a song that my father's father, Ernie Thomas,  used to sing with us when we were little.  It also fit his desire to go places and see things.  When I got my drivers license in high school he wanted to see the Viking site on the northern peninsula of Newfoundland.  He went with me and two of high school friends on a camping trip there in 1969.  Later he went with me and my brother and another high school friend, Jim Flagg all the way to Oregon and back.  He also went with me and my girlfriend at the time to the Grand Canyon.  All the trips were camping in tents and sleeping on the ground even though he was in his seventies, having been born in 1901.  

Here he is in 1989.

  

I remember him singing about four other songs on a regular basis. 

I've Been Working on the Railroad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9Q4WVUOvQ

Down by the Riverside

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9eDU045u_E

On Top of Old Smokey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ikJEbEk0Io

Down in the Valley  -  I didn't know till now that it was also called Birmingham Jail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z39QwP7_4Fc

 When he would come visit me at the University of Rhode Island sometimes we would drive out to Jamestown, an island in the middle of the the Narragansett Bay.  On the north end of the island was an isolated bar that may have had an inn attached.  They had Saturday night sing-alongs with lyric books they passed out and a lively piano player.  Olive and Ernie Thomas, my grandparents really enjoyed going out there.  Sometimes we would have to drive back very carefully as a fog would creep across the island while we were inside enjoying the music and song.

Here's a picture of Olive and Ernie, side by side, with my sister Deb's, mother-in-law telling Olive to look at the camera.  

First Saturday of My Retired Life, the Trajectory of a Life

I decided to set my date of retirement as Aug 31, 2015.  Turns out that Aug. 31 is a Monday --- so I used a vacation day and ended work on Friday, Aug. 28.

A few people had said that being retired means that every day is Saturday, even the retired SUNY Oneonta college president stuck his head in my door and told me that. It is a good concept or at least I think so at the moment as I type this on Saturday morning August 29th.

Other thoughts cross my mind.  When I was a boy my best friend was Randy Weber.  His father was an early riser -- he had to be he lived southeast of Philly and worked in the Big Apple -- commuting daily for years.  Did he sleep in on Saturday morning?  No way -- Saturday was HIS DAY and he got up earlier and if possible with more energy!

For years I was an early riser also.  I had to be, because I had a morning paper route.  The papers were all supposed to be on the porches by 7 AM. I have seen a lot of sunrises.

Other things I am thinking about and will expand on include --

The Trajectory of A Life --
Is trajectory a good word?    Are we really "shot from cannons" and subject to the calculations of a trajectory?

How is it that I can retire at 62?

Was it because there was a gas shortage in 1974 and I ran into Jack Salo in the Keaney Gym parking lot at URI -- finding him siphoning gas (with permission he told me) from a friend's car because the number on his license plate wouldn't permit him to buy gas in his car on that day?

Or was it because I stopped and got his Minnesota address?

Or because I was organized enough to keep the address with me and use it in 1976 when I was biking across the country and running low on funds and needed to stop and see someone I knew in Minnesota -- and he was the only soul that I knew in Minnesota.

Was it because he answered the postcard that I sent him?

Or because an airline lost my luggage on a flight back from Africa in 1977 and I tried to hit him up for a place on his floor until the luggage caught up with me which caused me to try to reconnect with him.

Or because the girlfriend, Diane Hoffbauer,  that came east with him in 1977 was ambitious and wanted to move from being a migrant tutor to another role as parent advisor leaving a part time position open that I could fill?

Or because a wise man, Jim Pasternak, in the payroll office told me to bank any raises I got instead of spending them?

There's a story behind each question -- I'll see if I can get around to filling out the stories on this blog.