I come from a military background and have always worn my hair short. I just feel more comfortable that way. It's also way easier to take care of. Right after I got out of the Army I decided to let my hair grow to the fashionable length of the times..1972. I tried it for about six months and just couldn't stand it. It felt creepy. It took time away from more important things. It was definitely not me, so I cut it and have worn it pretty short ever since.
But, I digress. So, this afternoon I went for a hair cut. After describing the type of cut I wanted the barber-ess tried to strike up a conversation. "Do you still work?" she said........................
Now, I could take that statement and launch into an entertaining soliloquy on how deflating that was. I could compare it to some great put downs and just have all kinds of fun with it. As much fun as that might be, I really didn't think of that at all. What I thought was, "Unfortunately yes. For 648 more days, yes I still work." The very next thing I thought is if this person has to ask, I really should be. The third reaction was really a sense of I am where I want to be. I'm looking forward to retirement and sometimes people just confirm that by asking "Do you still work?".
Other odds and ends....The Bride is still in California. Since I have the day off, I was going to take The Emmer out to dinner after she got off work. She called a little while ago to say that she is having to work a double shift again so dinner is out. I think I'll order in some Chinese food that she can have when she gets home. She really likes that, so it will still be a treat of sorts for her.
We had our first snow of the season yesterday. It started at about 8am and continued off and on most of the day. Because the temperature was hovering on freezing we only accumulated about 3 inches. The temperature went up in the afternoon and the streets were dry by sundown. There's only a little left on the lawn right now. Gotta love this Colorado weather.
The weather was a good reason to work some more on my slide scanning project and I spent most of the day doing so. I culled through quite a number of slides and ended up scanning about 75. Not bad work for one day. I still have quite a number to go through.
Among the pictures I scanned are the two ships you see in this post. The first is the General William O. Darby. A converted troop transport ship that took my parents and our family from New York to Livorno, Italy in 1956. The ship had an interesting history as you can see from the link. The accommodations were spartan even for families. No one today would pay for a cruise on this type of ship.
The second ship is the SS Constitution....not "Old Ironsides" but the pride of the American luxury fleet in 1950. This was the ship we returned from Italy to New York City on in 1959. It was still very much the posh way to travel between Europe and the US at the time. In the 1950s it was still not common for families to fly to Europe. The military operated their troop/family transport service but they still had to ship a number of families to and from Europe by private steamship service. We were very lucky, indeed, to be able to
experience the last of the American luxury liners on the European run.Sadly, the SS Constitution went to a watery grave in 1997 when she sank while being towed to an Asian "chop shop" that was to scrap her.
The final picture is one of my mother and father on-board the Constitution. I remember the journey quite clearly even the part in which we sailed through the tail end of a hurricane just before getting to the states. I think I can still feel the pitching and rolling....as luxurious as the ships were in those days they just didn't have the stabilizing gear that modern ships have. It was a rough ride and I stayed sick for days.
Thanks for visiting.
No comments:
Post a Comment