This year’s birthday for me was, as I have said, an eyeopener. It was a celebrated milestone, perhaps one I have been anxious about. However, at the same time so thankful that I, unlike many of my close people, have been afforded to mark in my life.
As I sit and ponder the experiences that are allowed to me at this age, I realize I have had a phenomenal and sometimes unbelievable life. As a child growing up on the outskirts of town, I was the product of ‘blue collar’ workers. My dad was an automobile mechanic by trade but a fisherman by heart. My mother was a factory worker. Neither of them having had much of an education, not in book learning, made quite a wonderful life for my brother, my sister and me.
My husband and I married at the “ripe old age” of seventeen and neither of us have regretted that spur-of-the-moment decision, now for nearly sixty-three years. WOW!! But in saying this, I tell you there is so very much more on my “bucket list” left for me to enjoy and experience before I am too old to get out of my comfortable chair.
Some of the bigger more exciting things I would love to do is visit the famous avenue in Paris, The Champs Elysees, and hear Maurice Chevalier sing about the renowned place. Maybe have a cup of expresso at a roadside café. Visit New York City once again and walk-through Times Square and Central Park, parachute from an airplane, (with a seasoned jumper strapped to me of course).
Sleep in a tent on a rainy night one more time, write THE great novel, learn to cook as a gourmet chef, and perhaps lose a few more pounds. Plus a few other things.
I think about the things I still want to accomplish and then I remember the things I have realized, and I surely do not believe I have missed too much in my time so far. I have achieved the dream of being a wife, mother of three treasured children, fourteen grandchildren, traveled to several countries, been queen for a day, had the blessing and good fortune of so many good friends, and I get to visit with all of my great newspaper friends once a week. How blessed am I?
EASY RANCH MEATLOAF
1 pound of ground chuck, 2 T. dry Ranch dressing, ½ cup of seasoned breadcrumbs. Mix all together well and add ¼ cup of ketchup and 2 T. brown sugar to top and bake in 350* oven for 40 minutes. Serve with garlic potato salad.
GARLIC POTATO SALAD -
5 potatoes cut into chunks and cooked until tender. 3 T. mayonnaise, 2 cloves crushed garlic, 1 t. dried oregano, salt and pepper. Mine is not aways creamy enough so I add as much sour cream as needed.
