THE HAPPY YEARS: GROWING UP IN ASHVILLE, OHIO IN THE 1950s

By Larry B. Fullen

Ashville enjoyed prosperity after the harsh and lean years of the Depression and WWII. Predominately, low-middle income, there were no social or economic divisions, all were rich in mutual respect and pride of community. As youth, the homogenic culture and ethnicity of our small-town was not recognized. The focus was on the Thursday night dances in the park, the Fourth of July celebration, and winning county sports championships. Teachers were neighbors, compassionate and dedicated to their profession. There was a sense of freedom, but is something was wrong or not to expectations, parents would know about it immediately. An attitude of optimism prevailed, unaware that Ashville, like many rural communities, was not realizing the growth of the metropolitan and industrial areas, and that for the younger generation the future was not likely to be in Ashville. Later in life we understood the blessings and meaning of small-town values, the unique shared experiences, and lasting friendships from growing up in Ashville.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669877929

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Copyright © 2023 by Larry B. Fullen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Cover Illustrations: 1. Ashville Elementary/Ashville-Harrison High School.

2. 1945-1946 First Grade Class Ashville Elementary. 3 Village United Methodist Church. 4. Mural on outside wall of Small-Town Museum, Ashville Ohio. Note the unique traffic light at the downtown intersection. The 4th of July parade is shown as proceeding south on Long Street turning east on Main Street. The actual route is for the parade to enter the intersection from the East on Main Street and continue east as outlined in the Chapter Fourth of July

Rev. date: 08/21/2023

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DEDICATION

THE HAPPY YEARS is dedicated to the Dear Hearts and Gentle People who lived and loved in my hometown, Ashville, Ohio, from 1945 to 1957. Two of those Dear Hearts were my parents, Lawrence and Mildred Fullen.

Most of those Dear Hearts and Gentle People are no longer on this earth. Still, their memory lives in THE HAPPY YEARS. A special thanks to the many True Friends of those Growing Up Years, friendships that lasted our eternity, never waned, and memories that increased in fondness, value, and appreciation as time went by.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

A reoccurring warning to new and unknown writers is to skip over a PREFACE unless you are a celebrity or politician. THE AUTHOR’S NOTE is the recommended alternative.

THE HAPPY YEARS occurred in Ashville, Ohio, from 1945 to 1957, age six through my teenage years. Our nation was experiencing incredible economic growth providing a hike in living standards, higher wages, and extra money in people’s pockets. Ashville and other small towns grew in population and wealth slower than the urban areas. However, small towns had less crime and social issues than cities. The Cold War and the threats of a Nuclear War were not essential topics of discussion in our village. There was a powerful sense of community camaraderie, and almost everybody knew your name.

THE HAPPY YEARS, the book evolved it was not planned. Nearing retirement, I sought new challenges to keep my mind active. In addition to reading, my goals were to expand my culinary skills, write memoirs, give more attention to understanding Biblical scripture, in pursuit of gaining wisdom in my senior years. As to the health of my body, golf, exercise, and honey do’s have proven adequate thus far.

In 2003, I enrolled in the Creative Non- Fiction Writing Course, part of the Extended Education curriculum of the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. Learning more than anticipated, I am still trying to become a litterateur.

My first book was about the 1945 High School Basketball Team of Ashville-Harrison High School. The team, coached by my father, came within two points of winning the Class B High School Basketball Championship of Ohio. Many ardent, objective, and knowledgeable basketball fans said a wrong call by an official took two points off the Ashville score. After years of research, interviews, writing, and editing, The Broncos of 1945 was published in 2010. A synopsis of the book is included in Section Eight because it is an important memory of my growing up.

In writing memoirs my intention was to write short stories of the incidents, people, or happenings that occurred and left a lifetime of impressions. Separate stand-alone stories allows readers to choose what and when to read based on interest. There will be redundancies since certain people or specific events or activities may be involved in more than one narrative.

Writing of memoirs increased intentionally because I was an active participant in a memoir writing group that required submission of a short story, for critique, every two weeks. The memoirs evolved into two time periods. The first is THE HAPPY YEARS, my Growing Up Years before college. Memoirs after college, perspectives on baseball, and my beliefs are still in process.

I hope THE HAPPY YEARS is worthy of your time and financial investment. The narratives reflect the uniqueness of Ashville. However, like happenings could have occurred in any small Midwest town during the 1950s. Productivity in farming was growing exponentially, the average size of a farm increased by fifty percent in the decade, by 1970 doubled, and a million people a year, in our nation, were leaving the farm to seek employment elsewhere. It was a decade where women going to work, like my Mom, escalated by fifty percent. The narrative highlights values and virtues that are unique to small towns but being lost with increased urbanization. Some of these changes were not being felt or recognized because they were concealed by our happiness during our growing up years. The perception was that education in the rural areas was behind those of the metropolitan areas. Maybe so, but we received more personal attention and encouragement from our teachers because teachers and parents were truly part of the same community.

As multiple surveys have revealed, my hometown friends and I lived in a decade that was the Happiest since the 1920s. My life includes more spontaneous, inspirational, engaging adventures and experiences and more blessed friendships than I deserved. Best of all, Margie, a loving wife of sixty years, beyond my worthiness, and two loving children and their children—all not perceived, Growing up in Ashville, Ohio.

We cannot turn back the clock to those Happy Years. My sincere hope is that reading about this nostalgic period in my life will not only be entertaining and informative, but will be a blessing and a happy experience.

There are Biblical scripture references throughout the text. All scripture references are from the Life Application Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION.

NOTE: Two sections are added, at the end of my narratives. OTHER and OTHERS are inputs or commentary about or from others. An ADDENDUM includes information such as history, biographical information, details on events and sequential occurrences related to a narrative. A lot of details!

DEAR HEARTS AND

GENTLE PEOPLE

No song reflects the environment of my youth like Dear Hearts and Gentle People.

Sammy Fain, music, and Bob Hilliard, lyrics, were inspired to write the song from the words on a scrap of paper Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts, found on the body of the famous songwriter Stephen Foster, Father of American Music, dying in a hotel room in New York City, January 1864. (1)

Those Dear Hearts and Gentle People that live in my hometown will never let you down. Spontaneous goodness was inherent in the people of Ashville. Was it a bonding that developed among our parents during the Depression and World War II, where everyone shared and looked out for each other without objection or hesitation? Was it the fact that by the middle of the twentieth century, most of the population of Ashville and the surrounding area were second and third generation- everyone knew everyone? Was it because most families were of equal economic status, low or just-below middle income? Even those perceived as rich were like everyone else—hard-working, no complaints, love of country in good times and bad, proud to be an American, and proud of their hometown!

People in Ashville had a sense of individuality, responsibility, self-motivation, and the love and respect for God. As adolescents, we sensed a moral obligation to be good, stay out of trouble, be trustworthy, and contribute to the community. Was it because everyone knew who you were and your parents would find out if you got in trouble? We knew our parents would be embarrassed if we did something wrong. A gathering of teens was never seen as a threat.

I feel so welcome each time I return that my happy heart keeps laughing like a clown. In those early days of our marriage, 1965-1976, and later living in Westerville, 1989-1999, we usually approach Ashville from the north on U. S. Route #23. The Water Tower for the village of Ashville was visible two to three miles north of the turnoff on State Route 752. Margie often said, There you go again, as I usually began humming and singing when I saw the water tower.

Almost everyone in town knew and respected Pop Fullen. A teacher in junior high for thirty-eight years and the coach of the only high school basketball team in the country to reach the state finals makes a person well-known. I was recognized as Pop Fullen’s son, not Larry. I always felt welcomed by those Dear Hearted people when visiting my parents and even years after they died. A joyous time is the annual AHHS alumni banquet held on the first Saturday in June; I usually attend every five years when our class is one of the honored classes. Amazingly, none of us have aged in all those years since high school.

They read the Good Book from Friday till Monday; that is how their weekend goes. Those lyrics may be an exaggeration. However, religion was important in Ashville, like most small Midwest towns. A high percentage of the population believed in God and Jesus and were not shy about expressing their Christian faith. Reverence to God was at a much higher level of Christian spirituality than in America today. Community gatherings at the park, school, and downtown were an essential part of village life in Ashville and often began with and closed with prayer. The Lutheran, United Brethren, and Methodist churches were located within one block in the downtown neighborhood and combined services for Vacation Bible School and alternated locations for graduation Baccalaureate Services. All churches, including the non-denominational church in the north section of the village, shared and rotated responsibilities for the Sunday Community Worship at the park during the Fourth of July celebration. As referenced in my writings, students from all twelve grades gathered in the hallways each morning of the week leading up to Christmas to sing Christmas carols— that would not be politically correct today.

The closing lyrics of Dear Hearts and Gentle People are I’ll build a dream house there one day with picket fence and rambling rose. In my situation, there will be no dream house in Ashville. However, the description of the picket fence and rambling rose reflects the respect and responsibility of the townspeople of the era to keep the town clean and attractive with green lawns, flower gardens, and a lovely community park.

The 1950s are recognized as those stay at home years, babies born at an accelerating rate after the war, with folks emphasizing family life and family values. In a rural community commercial activity centered around agricultural and local needs. But as the agricultural economy shrunk more people traveled to Columbus or the new Industrial Park south of Circleville for employment. Nevertheless, rural life was still considered the repository of all that is stable, immemorial, harmonious, pleasant, and reassuring in the modern world. Small towns with less than 20,000 population were still recognized as communities where honesty, religion and a strong sense of individualism, and family values can be found. (3)

Like me, the Dear Hearts in my hometown are aging, and fewer people recognize me. My visits to Ashville are less frequent. Yet the memories remain Dear to me as long as I have my memory! And Pop Fullen will still be remembered by those Dear Hearted people in my hometown because he has a featured profile in the village Small Town Museum!

CONTENTS

Section One – Title

Section Two – Family

Section Three – Ashville

Section Four – Seven To Eleven

Section Five – Seventh And Eighth Grade

Section Six – School Days

Section Seven – Baseball, High School

Section Eight – Other Sports

Section Nine – Other Memories

Section Ten – Reflections

Other and Others

SECTION ONE – TITLE

Origin, Background, and Rationale of The Happy Years. The Who, When, Where, and What of the Title.

The Narratives Are:

• HAPPY GENERATION

• TRANSITION GENERATION

• ASHVILLE

• GROWING UP

• MEMOIRS, The Link

• MEMORIES

HAPPY GENERATION

Never has American youth been so withdrawn, cautious, unimaginative, indifferent, unadventurous, and SILENT. William Manchester, (1)

"Compared with the flaming youth of their fathers and mothers, today’s younger generation is still a small flame. It does not issue manifestos or carry posters. It has been called The Silent Generation." Time, the magazine, November 5, 1951

Time would prove Time, the magazine, and Manchester were wrong; we were the Happy Generation. Yet, I agree with these annotations: 1. The fear of a nuclear war existed. 2. A reality of being drafted made us conscious of immortality. 3. Arduous work was a virtue. 4. Short- term wants were delayed. Needs came before wants. 5. An acceptance that life could be full of disappointments. 6. A faith connection with God was relevant. 7. There was no defining historical or significant emotional event after WWII through the decade of the 1950s. (2)

Two colossal events, the Great Depression and WWII, caused our generation to be smaller than the preceding and future generations. Witnessing our parents’ economic struggles motivated many of us to strive for financial security and higher living standards. We were swept up in a spirit of patriotism during and after WWII. Other traits learned from the Greatest Generation were family values, loyalty, discipline, and sacrifice for the better good.

In June 1954, just three years after labeling us the Silent Generation, Time renamed us the Luckiest Generation. The magazine said we were secure and confident. The remarkable economic recovery not only enabled our parents to earn higher wages, but many of us also had part-time job opportunities. We could buy things and do things like no prior generation. Still, we remained humbled by childhood memories of the Depression and World War II.

In 2008, Elwood D. Carlson, in The Lucky Few, Between the Greatest Generation and Baby Boom, said we enjoyed a smooth and easy transition to adulthood in the relatively prosperous 1950s and early 1960s. The enormous national debts of WW II were paid off; personal debt was not an issue, and no credit cards and no student loans—you paid your way through college, joined the military, or got a job. The lowest murder rate per capita in all generations since 1900. America was the most favored nation in the world. Women began to enter the business world rapidly with responsibility and stature. The era gave birth to the concept of the American Dream. A home in the suburbs indicated upward mobility. We saved at an unprecedented rate, spent, and invested wisely, and weathered the Great Recession 2007- 2008 better than the Baby-boomer, X, and Y generations. Our war in Korea was relatively small in scope and low in casualties compared to World War II. Still, it was, nevertheless, a tragedy of our times. Through it all, we emerged as the wealthiest, healthiest, and happiest generation, and many retired on our terms. However, Marketers avoided us because we were small in numbers (41 million to 78 million Baby Boomers). We were the most Misunderstood and Underestimated Generation, and the Most Overlooked. (3), (4), (5)

I view our era as "Happy Years," referenced from Happy Days, the weekly TV sitcom from 1974 to 1984. Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard), his parents, and Fonzie (high school drop-out Henry Winkler) provided an idealized version of life in the mid-1950s. Happiness was jitterbugging and twisting with Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, and Chuck Berry. It was listening on vinyl or radio to modern jazz’s birth through the artistry of Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubaker, Charlie Parker, Ella, and Sarah. During the past seventy years, numerous validated surveys confirm that the highest rating for people identifying themselves as Happy is our generation, born between 1926 and 1946. (6)

Neither government nor society addressed the increasing use of heroin and cocaine, deteriorating morality, and increased sexual harassment. The post-war era for many African Americans was a reminiscence of the Depression as they faced discrimination in education and employment opportunities. Like generations to follow, we did not pay enough attention to the poor and disadvantaged. We were the last generation with an assumed hierarchical relationship between men and women. The Supreme Court Decision, Brown vs. Board of Education (Topeka), helped launch the Civil Rights movement with leadership in the civil rights and women’s rights movements emerging from our generation.

The Silence was our parents. My father (Pop) spoke about working all day in the field for 0.25 cents. However, neither Pop nor Mom talked about the hardships when their parents lost their farms. Other farmers could not pay to rent Grandpa Fullen‘s Threshing Machine. Pop struggled to pay for his college education and later mine. The youngest of six children, Mom never talked about how she was the only one of four girls who did not go to college because her father lost their farm. Our parents believed their actions were more important than words. We were the last generation whose lives were significantly influenced by our parents.

Silent, Lucky, or Happy What Difference Does It Make! I enjoyed my youth and adult life. My wife and I consider ourselves —humble, silent, lucky, and HAPPY Joyful and Blessed.

TRANSITION GENERATION

We played outdoors! We enjoyed evening meals together! We talked to each other! In the 1950s, more precisely, from 1945 to 1960, the economy of the United States, measured by Gross Nation Product, grew from $200 billion to $500 billion in these fifteen years, by two and a half times at a compound average annual growth exceeding sixteen percent. It was the Golden Age of American Capitalism. Our nation emerged from World War II as the most powerful military globally and gained the unofficial moniker, Leader of the Free World.

Growing up in Ashville, we were neither aware our Generation, born between 1926- 1945, would be the smallest and most neglected Generation of the six generations from 1900 nor mindful that a baby boom was occurring. Approximately four million infants would be born yearly, and seventy-seven million new U.S. citizens over the next twenty years. The census registered a net growth in our nation from 151.3 million in 1950 to 179.3 million in 1960, an 18.5 percent growth. Ashville, in the decade, also grew 18.5 percent, from 1,039 to 1,639. However, no corresponding growth in the Ashville-Harrison Township’s school population because most of the village population increase was through the annexation of the area called Little Chicago, north of the then-incorporation line of Station Street.

Inflation was minimal; wages increased above inflation; interest rates were low. People had pent-up demand and money to spend. Manufacturing facilities were rapidly converted from making war machinery for the U.S. and its Allies to producing cars, tractors, trucks, home appliances, household goods, and materials to build homes and commercial buildings—more things to buy during this extended period of prosperity. The Federal government was reconstructing and building the interstate highway system—Ike’s Interstate Highway Program. From 1944 to 1956, Veterans of World War II received financial benefits through the Serviceman’s’ Readjust Act (AKA G.I. Bill), which helped them obtain low-interest mortgages, payment of tuition, and living expenses for college and other education— HAPPY YEARS (1)

Living standards were improving, and lifestyles were changing for our parents, the village, the township, and the nation. In our neighborhood, my family was the last to replace our icebox with electrical refrigeration for food and heat our home with coal. At the beginning of the 1950s, more than half of the homes in the nation were still heated by coal or wood, but most would be replaced by oil or natural gas furnaces by the end of the decade. Willis Carrier developed the concept of air conditioning in 1925, and window A.C. units debuted in 1931, but the latter was only affordable in the 1950s. While one million box units had been installed by 1953, most homes in Ashville were cooled by portable electric fans until the next decade. A few Outhouses (outdoor toilets) still existed in the village, prime targets to be tipped over as a Halloween prank.

At the onset of the decade, a typical scene was people standing outside the window of the Toole Appliance Store on Long Street downtown, watching the test screen on the latest innovation, Television. There were a mere eight thousand televisions, with black and white screens, in homes in 1946. By 1950, nine percent of U.S. households had a TV, fifty percent of households by 1955, and seventy-five percent by 1960. No other household item ever had such growth as the television set. However, it was necessary to get off the couch to turn the knob to one of the three channels (NBC, CBS, ABC), adjust the volume, and rotate the rabbit ears antennas on top of the T.V. to improve the picture. Color T.V. was introduced in 1950, but only one percent of the households had a color set by 1954, and after ten years, only five percent of the home. Who could have foreseen homes with at least two large screen color Smart T.V.s with remotes and hundreds of channels? In our era, the major sports on T.V. were Roller- Derby, Professional Wrestling, Bowling, Friday Night Boxing, and Horse Racing. Unbelievably, Wrestling, on TV, was about the same in promotion and bravado as today. *

The Drive-in Movie Theatres became immensely popular and peaked in the 1950s. They were an estimated 4,000 Drive-ins during the decade, mostly in rural areas because they usually required at least fifteen acres of space. Pickaway County had two Drive-ins. A family could enjoy a night out economically, and a high school boy and a girl might also discover enjoyment there. Soon, technology, other entertainment options, and more significant profit opportunities for fifteen acres of prime real estate created a short growth cycle for Drive-in Theatres. There were no McDonalds to go to after the movie, there was a Dairy Queen, and the DQ’s still make great milkshakes.

In 1950, one and a half million females were telephone switchboard operators at the central exchange or plants, offices, and commercial facilities. You could not call anyone direct, and often you shared a line with one or two others in the village, not in your family. We thought progress was a dial-up direct stationary phone. However, long-distance was still through the operator, and international calls required operator connections until the twenty-first century. No one in Ashville in 1950 could have conceived of mobile phones to call direct to anyone anywhere in the world with apps, texts, email, and no operators! (2)

New homes were being built in Ashville, north of our residence on Plum Street, east of the ten-acre community park. Most of these homes were not being built for people coming to Ashville but for people in the village who could now afford a bigger home and more property. It was a decade in which seventy-five percent of all new homes were being built in the suburbs of the nation’s metropolitan cities, with limited housing growth in rural areas. Ashville’s agricultural economy was not keeping pace with the growth in the industrial and service economies of the metro areas. Our Generation did not recognize an economic decline in Ashville. At the same time, we did not expect to remain in our hometown after high school and college graduation.

Has the quality standard of living, culture, and values improved since the 1950s? Is there any Generation since ours that was called Happy? (3)

*The first showing of a Color TV in Columbus was at Lazarus; Mom was there.

ASHVILLE

Ashville, with a census population of 1,309 in 1950, is about twenty miles south of Columbus, the state capital. Ashville is located where you can see the glow of Columbus and hear the planes from Lockbourne Air Base. And when the wind is right, one can see the smoke from the great power plant serving Columbus on the banks of the Big Walnut. (1)

"On land once inhabited by the Mound Builders and later by Native American Indians, principally the Shawnees, stands the village of Ashville. Location was a principal asset for the village. The railroad was the growth impetus for the community. However, the fertile land attracted settlers making agriculture a dominant industry.

"The beginning of the village is attributed to Richard Staige, (Stage) migrating from Virginia, formerly Edinburgh, Scotland. His priority on the property of seventy-seven acres was to establish a distillery. In 1837, his sons sold the distillery to Mahlon Ashbrook, who expanded it, built a grist mill on the banks of Walnut Creek, and opened a general store.

"There is no agreed-to story on how Ashville got its name. The most creditable account is that the source of the name was Mahlon Ashbrook. Others claim it was from the many Ash trees in the area. Another suggestion is that it was from a settler from Ashville, Pennsylvania.

"Forty-eight residents signed the petition to incorporate the village in 1882. Two outstanding features have placed Ashville on the map, the unique traffic light invented by local entrepreneur T. A. Boor and the annual Fourth of July celebration.

From the pioneer struggles over the past century, our heritage is a fascinating one. May we in these Bicentennial years pause to pay respect for the many blessings brought to the present generation. Early Days in Ashville, written by Miss Nelle Oesterle, 1976. (2)

Ashville is in Harrison Township, one of fifteen townships in Pickaway County. The township is named in honor of General William Henry Harrison, son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Secretary of the Northwest Territory, Senator from Ohio, and ninth President of the United States. Harrison gained fame and the nickname Ole Tippecanoe as a military officer in the Battle of Tippecanoe against the confederacy led by Chief Tecumseh. Harrison was the first President to receive more than one million votes. He was also the first President to die in office and served the shortest tenure, thirty-one days. He was the paternal grandfather of the twenty-third President, Benjamin Harrison.

Land descriptions and measurements list a Township as six miles square and 36 square miles. There are 36 sections in a standard township; each is one-mile square or 640 acres. However, Harrison Township is not six miles square. It varies from two to four miles in width, from east to west, and is upwards of eight miles in length. It is 27.7 square miles but has 36 numbered sections. The Scioto River bounds the township on the west and Walnut Creek on the south and southeast. Franklin County is the northern border, and to the east, the boundaries are Madison and Walnut Townships.

In the era, over two-thirds of Harrison Township’s population resided in the three communities of Ashville, Millport, and South Bloomfield. These three communities, in the southern portion of the township, were inter-connected by the mile-long Ashville-Bloomfield Road, known as the Section Road, also as Pickaway Street, and part of state route #316. The Community of Duvall, similar in size to Millport, was in the north-central part of the township four miles north of Ashville.

Pickaway County was in south central Ohio. It was formed on January 12, 1810, with an area of about 480 square miles. Pickaway is a misspelling of Piqua, a tribe of the Shawnee. The county seat is Circleville, created in 1810, in the center of the county, within the diameter of a circle (1,100 feet) of a Hopewell tradition earthwork. Locals sometimes call it Roundtown, known as the home of the Circleville Pumpkin Show, an annual four-day event that began in 1903. The 1950 census population was 8,723, expanding rapidly to 11,059 in 1960, primarily due to the start-up of several industrial plants, including Dupont and General Electric.

*A detailed history of Ashville is in the ADDENDUM

GROWING UP

Did you think about Growing Up when you were Growing Up? I just Grew Up!

It does not take a genius to realize that there are distinct stages of life, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and educationally. The physical stages are more evident and external than the inward non-physical ones.

Life is like baseball. There is no specified time for the game to end, but unlike baseball, in life, you do not get extra innings to keep the game alive until a definitive conclusion. There is no visible human-operated scoreboard to say the game of life is over. Life can also be linked to football in four quarters. However, unlike in football, not every quarter is equal in time; there are neither time limits nor extra periods in life.

To better explain life, I turned to my education, Marketing, where a product is defined in stages such as 1. Introduction/Embryonic (creation to first grade); Growth (youth, through formal education); 3. Maturity (professional career, marriage, parenting, beliefs); 4. Declining/Aging (slowing down, retirement, passive, dying, and death). Neither a product nor a human life has precise time limits for each cycle. However, unlike in life, sometimes products can be recycled; as humans, you are only a youth once!

We are Introduced to the world primarily by parents, grandparents, and relatives. In those infant years, we make no life-changing decisions; we learn from watching and mimicking. We seek approval and validation, even though not necessarily consciously. I have very little memory of what took place before six years of age. However, my parents (like most parents), especially grandparents, are enamored with us, remember more than we wish they did, and were usually patient. We can only look at pictures or old Super 8 movies for memory. We did not have DVDs, Smartphones, and Facebook to picture and share our life daily with the world.

The Growing-Up Stage is when we begin to differentiate ourselves, to take on an identity. We make friends, which are essential to us, sometimes for life. Growing up is when we begin to make choices, accept responsibility for our choices, and realize that those choices have consequences, influence our relationships and health, and affect our future. Growing up, however, we are still financially dependent on our parents, who must legally approve of some of our actions. Growing up embraces learning, caring, and sharing.

Youth is that transition period between childhood and adulthood. Like a plant, it is when we start to bloom. It can be divided into Elementary, Middle School, High School, and college or military service. It can be a pre-teen, teen, adolescent, or even twenty-one or thirty years of age. For most of us, youth is the best time of our life. In youth, we learn; in age, we understand.

Maturity is when we are on our own, financially independent, financially responsible, and legally and morally responsible for our actions. It should be when we live up to our identity, define our virtues or vices, achieve our goals, and realize how others view us. It is the time of highest earnings, marriage, parenting, and homeownership. In maturity, we may shed friends and solidify our base of friends as we establish our priorities, eliminate wasteful and frivolous activities and establish our beliefs and value system. We begin to plan for retirement and the inevitable final stage of life.

The fourth and final stage of life is Decline/Aging. We may become independent of some of the financial, social, responsibilities, and other time commitment demands on our lives and begin to establish our legacy. We do some of those things on our bucket list while we still can and sometimes overindulge in enjoying the lifestyle of grandparents and retirees. We look back and self-appraise who we are, what we are, accomplished, and our regrets. We reflect on our youth and remember and reminisce about The Happy Years. Many of us wish our children and grandchildren could have enjoyed or could enjoy their youth as we did.

Hopefully, you and I have been accountable to God and will spend eternity in the Good Place with memories cherished by loved ones.

MEMOIRS, The Link

What are you going to do in retirement? Margie

Was Margie, my