Turning 65

First off...I really never thought of making it to the "golden age" of retirement...few of the Houseworth men have...

One of the few was the man who was first born in the United States after his father Jacob Hauswirth arrived in 1751 on the Ship Janet, from Rotterdam at Philadelphia.  My GGG-Grandfather Israel Houseworth lived to be the ripe old age of 83 or so, passing away in Waldo, Ohio, during the Civil War.  The rest, from Great Grandfather Nelson(50), Grandfather Sam(50), and my dad, Stanley(55), didn't make it out of their fifties....Uncle Forest died at 54, and while John Furl, my uncle, made it to 75, he had a massive heart attack while in his 40s....his son Gary, our first cousin, died at 62...brother Mike, 67 in December and me, now 65, are the exceptions...not sure why, it's not that we lived the healthy life...at least not until the past few years...and Hell I still drink too much ale...but stay fit, as for brother Mike?  Not sure what his excuse for making it this long...stubbornness perhaps.

Anyway, waking up this morning, I had made "retirement age" ... but I started collecting Social Security at 62, had retired from the Van Wert County Health Department at age 53 back in 2002, so I was pretty well "retired" regardless.   Of course retirement is just a state of mind....I continue to "work" after leaving the Environmental Health field...driving RVs cross country for delivery and pick~up for 6 years, and umpiring baseball for the past 15, as well as picking up Football and Basketball officiating over the past decade.....Retirement is just a state of mind....I have no intention of quitting and sitting on my backside anytime soon...if the Grim Reaper comes calling, he will have to find time to catch me when I'm not busy.

I was born in Van Wert, Ohio, on the evening of March 16, 1949...less than 6 hours short of St. Patrick's Day...the Irish Holiday that mom was hoping for....I just wouldn't wait those extra
hours....but Irish it was, Pat and Mike, were the names, from our Irish roots on mom's side of the family.

Living in Dad's hometown of Scott, Ohio{population 250}, for the first five years, we pulled up stakes, along with our cousins, the Polings, and headed to the beaches of South Florida...living near and in Venice, for nearly the next decade....back to Ohio we came in the early 60s....and since those days, I have lived mostly in Celina, along with stops in the Air Force, and after in Upstate New York, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Kansas....

It's been an interesting ride along the way....I have not done all that I could or should have, have made many missteps, and will continue until they plant me .... all in all however, it's been a good ride, and one that when it does end, hopefully, I will have left behind mostly things on the positive side, well at least on balance.

back later>>>

Photos-Turning 65 and in the middle photo me and Mom in front of Grandma Houseworth's Place in Scott, Ohio, in 1949...