Milby Class of 1960

What Are You Doing, Now That You've Retired?

April 14, 2008 . . . Here's a question posed to those of you who have the luxury of RETIREMENT by Linda Little Strickland, who has recently joined your ranks and ~ after a prolonged visit with her mother, then assisting in the birth of her newest grandchild  ~ is now wondering...

"What are some of the things our classmates have done since RETIREMENT?" 

Linda continues: I love this quote from Henry Ford. "Anyone  who keeps learning stays young.  The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young".   I am thinking about taking an art class.  Nice to be 65, college courses are free here in Georgia. I have tried to put feet to some of the things I want to learn, and I have bought the books on growing roses, growing herbs, training a dog. Tried to put exercise in my schedule as a job and only with music can I stay on the treadmill. Do we have anyone in our class who has written a book or invented anything in the last fifty years?  I would like to know who has climbed a mountain, joined a motorcycle gang, moved to a place of their dreams, learned a new dance and on and on. Many have talent and so proud to read of their accomplishments. I really would like to hear what others are doing for fun in retirement years. Linda (you must read Linda's amusing yet poignant comment about her visit to her mother, attached to "On Becoming the Parent of Your Parent", then visit her bio page to read the hilarious account of the birth of her grandson)

To get things started, I have scoured the blog for information already posted about retirement activities. I have collected what I found and entered it as a comment, below. Please click on the word "Comment" (just below, on the right) to read that information. Then tell us what you are doing with your retirement time, or report on another of our classmates ~ some in our group are a bit shy, or perhaps too busy climbing that mountain to read the blog! KD

CLICK HERE to return to the top of the main section after reading comments below, and/or making your own comment.

April 14, 2008 . . . Here's a question posed to those of you who have the luxury of RETIREMENT by Linda Little Strickland, who has recently joined your ranks and ~ after a prolonged visit with her mother, then assisting in the birth of her newest grandchild  ~ is now wondering...

"What are some of the things our classmates have done since RETIREMENT?" 

Linda continues: I love this quote from Henry Ford. "Anyone  who keeps learning stays young.  The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young".   I am thinking about taking an art class.  Nice to be 65, college courses are free here in Georgia. I have tried to put feet to some of the things I want to learn, and I have bought the books on growing roses, growing herbs, training a dog. Tried to put exercise in my schedule as a job and only with music can I stay on the treadmill. Do we have anyone in our class who has written a book or invented anything in the last fifty years?  I would like to know who has climbed a mountain, joined a motorcycle gang, moved to a place of their dreams, learned a new dance and on and on. Many have talent and so proud to read of their accomplishments. I really would like to hear what others are doing for fun in retirement years. Linda (you must read Linda's amusing yet poignant comment about her visit to her mother, attached to "On Becoming the Parent of Your Parent", then visit her bio page to read the hilarious account of the birth of her grandson)

To get things started, I have scoured the blog for information already posted about retirement activities. I have collected what I found and entered it as a comment, below. Please click on the word "Comment" (just below, on the right) to read that information. Then tell us what you are doing with your retirement time, or report on another of our classmates ~ some in our group are a bit shy, or perhaps too busy climbing that mountain to read the blog! KD

CLICK HERE to return to the top of the main section after reading comments below, and/or making your own comment.

April 14, 2008 . . . Here's a question posed to those of you who have the luxury of RETIREMENT by Linda Little Strickland, who has recently joined your ranks and ~ after a prolonged visit with her mother, then assisting in the birth of her newest grandchild  ~ is now wondering...

"What are some of the things our classmates have done since RETIREMENT?" 

Linda continues: I love this quote from Henry Ford. "Anyone  who keeps learning stays young.  The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young".   I am thinking about taking an art class.  Nice to be 65, college courses are free here in Georgia. I have tried to put feet to some of the things I want to learn, and I have bought the books on growing roses, growing herbs, training a dog. Tried to put exercise in my schedule as a job and only with music can I stay on the treadmill. Do we have anyone in our class who has written a book or invented anything in the last fifty years?  I would like to know who has climbed a mountain, joined a motorcycle gang, moved to a place of their dreams, learned a new dance and on and on. Many have talent and so proud to read of their accomplishments. I really would like to hear what others are doing for fun in retirement years. Linda (you must read Linda's amusing yet poignant comment about her visit to her mother, attached to "On Becoming the Parent of Your Parent", then visit her bio page to read the hilarious account of the birth of her grandson)

To get things started, I have scoured the blog for information already posted about retirement activities. I have collected what I found and entered it as a comment, below. Please click on the word "Comment" (just below, on the right) to read that information. Then tell us what you are doing with your retirement time, or report on another of our classmates ~ some in our group are a bit shy, or perhaps too busy climbing that mountain to read the blog! KD

CLICK HERE to return to the top of the main section after reading comments below, and/or making your own comment.

Comments

[Retirement Information]

Linda (and all of you Buffs), be sure to read the article about Thurburn Barker and how he is spending his retirement time. WOW!!! I'm impressed!!! (It's linked in the Biography section mid-right-sidebar.)

I scoured the blog for previously entered information about how our classmates are spending their retirement (pasted below). Be sure to read their biographies in full...this is just a piece of most.

I hope we'll hear much more from these as well as from others. Karla (who is definitely NOT retired, but finds time to enjoy this blog nonetheless!!!)

Paul Schrader – “I am mostly retired, live in Colorado, and enjoy adventure travels.” (see his photo album - linked midway in right sidebar - with the phenomenal pictures and narrative from his Gorilla Trek to Uganda last summer. He has had several other exotic adventures since then - we'd love to have more pix and reports from Paul's adventure travels.)

Charles Simmons – "People ask me if I’m traveling during retirement. After I pick myself up off the floor from laughing so hard, I explain that I traveled the world in the Navy and spent four days out of every seven traveling with the airlines. A cup of coffee with my wife by my side and looking out on our patio works just fine for now!"

Herbert Johns – "In May 2007 I retired to run the roads of Texas again. I have 4 acres here, 27 ac. in Honey Island, 27 ac. in Centerville, a cabin in McDade, a time share, and a nation wide resort membership - so I won't be anywhere for too long except for maintenance and upkeep."

Sandra Lutman Higham - "I retired in 2003 and now spend time with my two granddaughters and my favorite thing - growing orchids."

Glen Langston - "I am a retired United Methodist minister currently serving as senior consultant with Four Seasons Ministry, a private organization equipping church leaders for more effective ministry through workshops, retreats, consultation, and coaching. Currently Tara and I live on a small farm in Mount Solon, VA in the Shenandoah Valley."

John Heard - "On retirement from Miami University in January, 2007, Marthann and I moved to the High Country of North Carolina, to an idyllic little village just outside the town of Boone. We love it here. Even though I am "retired", I'm still active as a performing musician and, in fact, have been enlisted this year to fill in for the ailing bassoon professor at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem."

Bonnie McCool Gervais - "I have retired from Baylor (medicine) after 29 years and we have a 5 month old granddaughter, Faith McCool Leaschber. We also have a home in Breckenridge, so we'll all be spending more time up there. Life is wonderful!"

Carolyn Sikes Magnusson - "After retiring, my life took a big turn for the better. Not having to work 10-12 hours a day anymore, I found several hobbies, mainly gardening and quilting. Vern and I have been married 14 years now, and I'm quite content. Vern has four grown children, so between his kids and my son, I have nine grandchildren. A couple of years ago, Vern and I bought a little acreage and moved to the Hill Country, about 60 miles west of Austin. It's beautiful here… I spend most of my days clearing and burning brush, moving rocks, raising longhorns and fighting rattlesnakes. In the evenings I make quilts for my grandbabies and watch Law and Order reruns on television."

JoAnn Peters Green - "Martin and I enjoy traveling and go very often. We make a run to the casinos about once or twice a month. This year we will be traveling with l5 other RVers to Big Bend in April, staying in condos in Wisconsin and Michigan in July and August and the East Coast and Canada in the fall, with lots of other little trips in between. We will be spending February 27 through March 3 at Lake Medina."

Brenda Joyce Collins Burnett - "I retired in November, plan to take some classes and maybe work 2-3 days a week, but I'm really enjoying this moment."

Charles Crider - "I retired from IT in 2006. Dolly and I have enjoyed camping ever since we got married… and now we have a travel trailer. We inherited a portion of my grandparent’s ranch outside of Marble Falls. In 1983 we had a cabin built and, since my father introduced me to woodworking as a little kid, I made the cabinets and finished the inside. About four years ago I started making pens…from a variety of woods…from deer horns or deer horns with bullet cases. It is a very different kind of woodworking that I really enjoy." Note: check out some photos of the pens Charles makes - go to his bio page and scroll through. Impressive!!! KD

Mary Lou Allen Brewer - "I'm starting my first year of retirement, well, caregiver to my husband and mom, but retirement none the less. No more long drives to work on the over-crowded freeways every morning. I was blessed with three children and seven grandchildren so far. I say blessed because they're now grown and my best friends. I've traveled to several different countries and all over the U.S. but there is still no place like Texas."

Grace Jane Moore and Harvey Ferguson - "We moved from West Texas to East Texas about 8 years ago. Both of us are retired, taking care of grandkids 24/7 because their mom is a single, working parent."

Larry Smith - "Charleen and I have been retired for two years, and we are living on 13 acres up in the woods near Plantersville (Ren Fest). We have 3 grandkids (3,6,7) who stayed with us last week while their parents were camping near New Braunfels. We are still recovering!!"

Gladys Payne Bohac - "In 1999 when we retired back home in Katy I had a lot of health issues, doing fine now though. We love to get together with old friends and family members. Bo and I have seven grandchildren between us. I have a son & daughter and Bo has the same. Our family keeps us busy. We are active in 2nd Baptist Church West Campus and love every minute of it."

John Hammerle - "John Hammerle is the retired Executive Director of Fine and Performing Arts, Dallas Independent School District."

[Linda Little Strickland]

Hey ya'll, this retirement is great. I sleep when I want to, watch tv all night if I want to. Been reading my dog training book - very interesting. I have been camping/fishing... that was a hoot. Will tell you that story when I get my pictures developed. I have been thinking about going to CVS drug store on Sunday afternoon and getting lessons on how to use this digital camera.

Thinking how I will spend my check from the goverment... gas? The Arabs get it.....Fruit/Veg.? Mexico gets it. Car? The Japanese get it....Walmart? China gets it. Think I will spend it on yard sales....Then I know it will be helping the American people. At the present time I am reading a book titled, "The Barter Book" - very interesting.

Exercise continues to be a part of my life. According to David Hariton, author of "Survival of the Thinnest", we have to trick our body into thinking we run for a living, like the cave men that had to hunt for food daily and in the long run burned up fat. "Pick an exercise you enjoy and that you think you can sustain for the rest of your life, for your body is like Cinderella's coach. As soon as you stop exercising it will turn back into a pumpkin", according to David Hariton. Great book!

Food is a big thing here. I was raised in the country, people here eat out for breakfast. This is Paula Dean land, cooking/family and party for any reason. Savannah has 400 restaurants to choose from. Back to the books. See how nice it is to be retired and read all these books that I had planned to read. What are the rest of you doing? Will send pictures later. Linda

[Now We Know...]

Karla writes...
Linda has been asking what those fortunate retirees of our herd have been doing with their leisure time. She has given us a few hints about what SHE is doing nowadays, but an e-mail I received from her this A.M. may be the best clue to her activities. I can see it now…

Foil Box Ends…who knew?

I bet not many of you knew this. I've been using aluminum foil and plastic wrap for more years than I care to remember. Great stuff, but sometimes it can be a pain. You know, like when you are in the middle of doing something and you try to pull some foil out and the roll comes out of the box. Then you have to put the roll back in the box and start over. The darn roll always comes out at the wrong time.

Well, I would like to share this with you. I looked at the end of a Reynolds foil box and written on the end it said, "Press here to lock end". Right there on the end of the box is a tab to lock the roll in place. How long has this little locking tab been there? I then looked at a generic brand of aluminum foil and it had one, too. I then looked at a box of Saran Wrap and a Kroger brand and it had one too! I can't count the number of times the Saran Wrap roll has jumped out when I was trying to cover something up. I hope I'm not the only person that didn't know about this, but in case you didn’t, I'm sharing this with you.

Karla here again… I have a sneaky suspicion that Linda was forwarding one of those clever stories that float around in cyberspace (although she is certainly clever enough to come up with this all by herself, the subject line did indicate it was a "forward"). But I did go right into my kitchen to check it out (no need to consult SNOPES on this one) and it is indeed true. This may radically change my life forever. Thanks, Linda. Keep passing your new-found wisdom along to the rest of us, and... WATCH OUT, HELOISE!!!

[Mike Roberts]

Hi all you tiring Buffs and retiring Buffs. What's RETIREMENT ? ?

I got an e-mail response to my BIO that told me I needed to add a line or so as I am no longer in South Houston. So I will do it here. (And Karla has now added it to Mike's bio page as well)

During my working life I was always looking for ways to elevate my income without doing anything like work and so I bought some investment Real Estate. Sold it when we moved to The Woodlands. Did okay. Watched the commodity markets as well and tried my hand. oooopS. Put in $ 500.00 and the mkt ate that right up, case closed.

When I found out that The Company was going to move in the late ' 80's and many people were going to be cut, I told Marilyn that our plan to build or buy another place was in jeopardy as I might get laid-off, so we began looking in earnest. She wanted to look for a place close to her sister in Channelveiw and I had seen a property on the VA Repo list that I wanted to see.

We decided to go to Conroe and look at mine first and when we pulled in the circle drive we could see a lake behind the home. As we pulled up to the front Double Doors behind a 40' roofed porch under a 40' balcony above we were in awe! It was open, going into the custom tiled entry which continued thru the dining area to the glass double doors with a veiw of the water behind the home and on thru the ample kitchen, we were aghast ! We put in a bid that evening with an agent and put our house on the rental list. Our bid was accepted ! ! ! Sold our RE investments when we moved to The Woodlands. This was going to be our " RETIREMENT HOME ".

My career at Hughes Tool Co./Baker Hughes Inc./Hughes Christensen ran 39 years 3 1/2 months. Just could not stand all that prosperity so I retired a little early at the end of May 2006.

I have never looked back ! I just love the idea that I no longer must get up at 4:30 am if I do not choose to. I enjoy my small community and home. I would go fishing at one of the seven lakes in our community most evenings when we first bought here. Since I have retired I have only been fishing maybe twice. I have a honey-do list that only gets longer as I work on it. Funny how that works. I really love the fact that I have things that I can improve on.

This is my passion, STAYING BUSY AND ACTIVE ! !

[Jody Bugg]

After 38 years in education, I retired in 2002. For the first four years I returned to both Alief and Aldine school districts to help out in third and fourth grades. I even worked a couple of hours a day in a church school in my neighborhood. I've done a little bit of traveling, but not as much as I would like to. Right now, I'm nursing a broken leg and looking after my 94-year-old mother who is still independent and lives in a retirement complex in southwest Houston. The best thing about retirement is that my time is my own. I rarely set my alarm. Yeah! The next best thing is that I no longer pant for the weekend ... I now have six Saturdays and one Sunday in my week. Another yeah! I highly recommend retirement. My motto is:

I don't want to; I don't have to; You can't make me; I'm retired!

Jody Bugg

[John Echoff]

OK Jody, 'fess up how'd you break your leg? You taking dance lessons from Herbert Johns, or what? Come clean your classmates want to know! Twist, Watusi, Bunny Hop, which one were you trying?

Hope you are back on both feet soon...

[John Hammerle]

One never retires, as the activities keep on growing and growing, one now has time to reflect the current situations, and make adjustments in the priority of these events. A time to cherish the special moments even more and a time to create even more special opportunities to reflect and cherish. We have enough time if we treat each moment as the first priority and cherish it forever.

[Mike Roberts]

Hi John, well said, PRIORITIES AND RETIREMENT ! All of my working life I looked forward to the time when I could set my own schedule, choose my own battles or pick my investments in personal companionship. NOW, in retirement, I'm not sure that should have been my objective all along.

My biggest challenge is to bestow on my children, memories, as you say, that I cherish and share with them. Memories we revisit from time to time and share a smile and know that we have a mutual and loving experience.

In essence, knowing I have made mistakes in prioritization, if I am able to relate the knowledge of that experience to my loved ones to improve their choices for the better, then I will have fullfilled that challenge.

[John Hammerle]

Well said Mike, that appears to be lifes "little secret". Selecting and establishing priorities, and having enough time to reflect and provide self-actualization. Too many times we run out of time. Thank you Mike for your thoughts.

[Retirement Q & A]

Comment posted by Karla Lofgren Davis.

I was doing a trackback on the Blog Management Site (someone was doing a search on Herbert John's name and it had brought them to our blog) and the trail back led me to a sideroad - a magazine - the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF POSTMASTERS RETIRED NEWSLETTER (MARCH 2007). The reference there was a comment by Herbert (himself a retired postmaster). As always, I chased a few rabbits through this online document and came across this bit of retirement humor:

And They Ask Why I Like Retirement!

Question: How many days in a week?
Answer: 6 Saturdays, 1 Sunday

Question: When is a retiree’s bedtime?
Answer: Three hours after he falls asleep on the couch.

Question: How many retirees to change a light bulb?
Answer: Only one, but it might take all day.

Question: What’s the biggest gripe of retirees?
Answer: There is not enough time to get everything done.

Question: Why don’t retirees mind being called Seniors?
Answer: The term comes with a 10% discount.

Question: Among retirees what is considered formal attire?
Answer: Tied shoes.

Question: Why do retirees count pennies?
Answer: They are the only ones who have the time.

Question: What is the common term for someone who enjoys work and refuses to retire?
Answer: NUTS!