LIFE

As we journey through our lives we see so many changes. I grew up as a little boy in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. I will say that I didn't grow up in the most loving family. My mom and dad were fighting almost constantly. I won't say that we were poor, but we didn't have much. I remember going to the outhouse before we got indoor plumbing when I was around five years old. My brother and I spent much time outside because it was more peaceful. Alcohol abuse was bad in my family especially on my father's side. However my dad had a tough life, he got polio when he was nineteen years old. He was sent to the Institute for the Crippled and Disabled in New York City where he learned the craft of jewelry making. He became famous in the Poconos as a silversmith.

I did alright in school, but I didn't apply myself as much as I could have. I was interested in certain subjects.
Math was my favorite subject because I was very good at it. I guess that was good because I ended up working in manufacturing for 30 years. I could change every fraction of 64ths in my head to a decimal.. I didn't need to figure it out. Every day math was needed in manufacturing.

It was a couple of years after graduating high school that the Vietnam War was going strong. Many of my friends were being drafted and I knew it was time for me to enlist. I joined the U.S. Air Force a move that
I never regretted. I thought then and I still think that every able bodied male should serve their country. I feel that ending the draft was a big mistake. The military teaches young people discipline and that is something lacking in our youth of today. I wonder if I was a good parent. I like to think so. My children were involved in scouts, the school band, my son on the swim team, my daughter as a majorette and drum major in the marching band the senior year. My son is a 20 year retired Marine and my daughter is an artist/graphic designer. I am so proud of them.

I spent my military time in Texas, Florida, and the Philippines. Funny four years in the Air Force and I was only in Vietnam for four hours. It was in the Airmen's Club on Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines that I met Lina. She became my wife and this coming December we will celebrate our 45th anniversary. We have
two children, five grand kids,and one great granddaughter.

In my work life I was an engraver and engraved gold drums about a half inch in diameter and an inch and a half long that went into guidance systems for missiles, after the military I worked for Ronson Corporation and put flint tubes in cigarette lighters, then for General Electric working in a carbon products plant, I became a machinist working in several factories through the years working on computer cabinets, parts for the space shuttle, parts for missile launchers on nuclear submarines, parts for fire detection systems, and numerous other parts. As the jobs  were increasingly being shipped overseas and manufacturing was hurt, those jobs were hard to find. I worked my last two jobs as a maintenance supervisor in a library and as a maintenance coordinator in a large church.

Finally retirement came and I wanted to do something to be remembered by. I started to write short stories and was finally published in Our USA Magazine. Now two published novels have followed and I look back on life and realize that life is what you make of it.

Would I have done things different in life if I had the chance to do it over. Some things yes and many things no. I have never smoked, my dad died of lung cancer from smoking at age 59. I don't drink alcohol, I did for some time, but haven't had a drink in 20 years. To many families fall apart from alcohol abuse. I was not going to let that happen to my family. Do I have any bad habits. Yes, I do swear to much, but I am working on that, hahaha.

One thing I will say is that I love life and enjoy getting up every day. I enjoy hearing the birds singing early in the morning, I enjoy walking and playing with my dog,Cookie, I enjoy phone calls and emails from my children and grand kids. I enjoy knowing that Lina has put up with my for almost 45 years. I enjoy nature with a passion. If I can take a walk in the forest that costs me nothing it is more pleasure for me than if I went of an expensive vacation. It is the little things in life that matter.Hugging my wife, petting my dog, watching it rain, chatting with a friend. Everyone should remember the little joys in life cost us nothing.

God bless my family and friends, I love you all.

Copyright   Larry W. Fish   2015

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