You don't need a science fiction time machine to convey you to your past. Your memory will do it, of course. However, conveying yourself to your future would require more than daydreaming. So let's stay with the past, for the time being.
My machine goes way back to Geisinger Hospital, just outside a small, former coal-mining town in Pennsylvania called Shamokin. Obviously, I have no memory of being born there, but shortly after moving to a retirement community in central New Jersey, our best friends' son became a critical care doctor at that hospital.
We still live in Jersey but a substantial percentage of our residents, also known as snowbirds, have gone to Florida. Ed, our son's father-in-law, and his wife are among those snowbirds. He told me his body can no longer take the winters up here. His feelings apparently are shared by many. They prefer Florida's weather to the cold and snow and ice. I certainly understand that, but would add that snowfalls are truly beautiful. We also enjoy living near our son and daughter and grandchildren all year-round.
Finances can be a factor in determining whether you can maintain two homes. In my case, however, I would have preferred San Diego, California, where the weather generally stays the same all year-round – neither too hot nor too cold. I once received an offer to work at the newspaper, then called The San Diego Evening Tribune, but it involved the night shift, and right or wrong, I decided not to take it.
Staying in New Jersey during the winter, my wife and I always seem to plan certain projects, but somehow we don't get to all of them. While many think it's terrible when it snows, we still enjoy looking out the window at nature's beauty. Our community gets cleared out very fast, so there is no shoveling involved – nor do we have to be concerned about lawn-mowing during the spring, summer and fall. Our homeowner associations handle all that.
We like the four seasons, including the transition from renewal in the spring, to being outdoors in the summer, to the beauty of autumn, to winter and the holidays, and back to spring renewal.
As a young boy, when it snowed, I remember my mother, as well as my older sister and her husband – when I lived with them – used to bundle me up in a snowsuit, a pull-down hat and gloves. And they would put galoshes on me. When was the last time you heard that word “galoshes” for boots?
My winters as a boy in Shamokin and in New York bring back many memories. In fact, the weather and the four seasons often seems intertwined with memories of your life. In our living room, I have a framed photo of me when I was about five years old, sitting in a chair on a porch, with my father standing behind me, in what seems to be the summer. I'm wearing shorts and he is wearing a short-sleeve shirt. I also have a picture of him as a young man, holding up a woman's shoe, at the shoe store he owned in that coal-mining town. A few years after the porch photo, my father developed Lou Gehrig's disease.
My two considerably older brothers, who used to work in the shoe store part-time, sold the store and we all moved to New York to be close to my mother's family. My father's illness became very severe, including paralyzed vocal cords. We couldn't communicate verbally, but I remember when walking home from elementary school in the spring, I would hug him when he was sitting on the porch. As he grew worse with extreme suffering, my family decided to have me live with my sister and brother-in-law who had stayed in Shamokin.
He died when I was 10 years old. At the time, I didn't fully comprehend the funeral and the burial, but growing up I always remembered how much he loved me and how he constantly told my family to take care of me. My oldest brother, George, took over the job of raising me – except when he served in the Army during World War II. And after the war, he picked up where he left off. He instilled in me values and goals that are still with me.
I would think that nearly all of us have experienced the agony of premature deaths in the family, among loved ones, and friends. In the Navy during the Korean War, I experienced an incident in which I thought I had 30 seconds to live. I survived, and that incident coupled with my brother George's guidance has helped me to always try to live fully and to count my blessings.
In high school, I developed acne and a shy personality. A nearby friend and I used to walk to high school, even in the snow, rather than take the school bus where I felt out of place. I eventually matured, and it was followed by marriage, children, grandchildren, a good career, and retirement – which gave us the gift of time, to do things which we previously may have overlooked.
Regardless of the seasons or the weather, take good care and enjoy your gift of time!
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