THANKSGIVING

As another Thanksgiving Day is almost here, it makes me look back over my life. What do I have to be thankful for? I grew up a country boy in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Those early years were tough but they have some of my fondest memories. I walked many miles in the forest around me. It was so peaceful. I would often sit on a rock and watch a herd of deer or smile as some squirrels were playing nearby. I remember my dad's horse named, Sugar. I remember having a pet squirrel, a pet raccoon and a pet deer. Many people have no idea what it like to have those things.

I think back to my time in the military. I served in Texas, Florida, and the Philippines. Yes, I was a young man traveling half way around the world. What would it be like I wondered? I remember landing at Clark AFB in the Philippines in the middle of the night. It was so hot and I was taken to a barracks to get some sleep. I woke up and flew out of my bed as I saw I was sharing it with a lizard, hahahaha. It is funny now, but not then. Yes, the Philippines, I was far away from home. It was in the Airmen's Club on base that I met a beautiful young Filipino woman. Her name, Dominga, that I soon started calling her by her nickname. It was a love at first sight. I spent 27 months in the Philippines as a crew chief and a flight mechanic. I got to fly to many primitive places in the Philippines that other people dream about. It was in the country of over 7,000 islands that I married, Lina. In less than a month it will be 44 years we have been together through the good times and the bad times.

I am thankful for our two children, Thomas who was active in the school bands and was on the swimming team. Thomas decided to make the Marine Corps his career. He spent 20 years as a Marine and served 3 tours of duty in Iraq. He has now retired from the Marine Corps and works for the US government, living in Okinawa. Our other child, Leonor was into majorettes and the school band. She was drum major in her senior year. Ever since Leonor could pick up a crayon she knew art was her passion. She graduated from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. She has continued to make art a career as an artist and a graphic designer. Her paintings and sketches are truly fabulous. Two children in my life that my wife and I are very proud of and thankful to have in our lives.

I am thankful for my career working in manufacturing and building maintenance. I have worked on parts that have been for guidance systems of missiles, parts that have gone in the space shuttle, parts for patriot missile launchers, parts for  missile launchers on nuclear submarines. I developed a riveting process for a part that my company tried unsuccessfully to manufacture for 30 years. I am thankful that I developed a process to rivet that part. It made me feel proud to do something that many others failed to do. I also worked in a library as a maintenance supervisor. I always had a love for books, but working in the library was just amazing. It brought the writer out in me. I have been published in Our USA Magazine and I am now having my second novel published.

I am thankful that I am now retired and can take life a little easy. I write when I want, take walks with my dog, I go to bed when I want and get up when I want. Getting old seems bad to many people, but not to me. I love life and as long as I love life I am thankful. I have many friends in my life, I have my facebook friends that I will probably never meet in person, but I am thankful that they are a part of my life.

Memories, friends, a wife of almost 44 years, 2 great children, and 5 grand kids. I am thankful for a lot of things in my life and I will be thinking of all of them as I eat my Thanksgiving dinner.


Copyright   Larry W. Fish   2014