Category: 65 Years in 65 Days

Looking back

DAY SIX – CROSS COUNTRY SKIING

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CROSS COUNTRY SKIING

The previous post was partly about my dog Tasha.  She came to me shortly after I had returned from a six-week road trip through Western Canada, which passed the time while I was waiting for the results of the bar examination.  I was pretty sure I had passed, but I couldn’t start practicing law until I had been formally admitted to the bar.  The exam was held in July and the admission ceremony was in October.  I was set to start working as an associate at a small firm in Thornton, Colorado – Carroll, Bradley & Ciancio.  After I was admitted, I immediately began working on some very interesting cases, including the defense of a murder for hire criminal prosecution and a case to determine who owned the water system serving the City of Northglenn, Colorado.  Somewhat less interesting was my first divorce case.  I represented the husband while the wife was represented by another young attorney who had been admitted to the bar at the same time as me.  We were both sort of feeling our way through the process, but I didn’t find it very interesting.

At some point during the negotiations, the other attorney and I began talking about things we enjoyed outside the office and I mentioned cross country skiing, a sport I have enjoyed for many years.  He said that he had never tried it, but would like to learn and we arranged to meet the following weekend to go skiing.  Tasha was about 7 or 8 months old at the time and had never been skiing, so I brought her along.  When I met my skiing companion, I found that he was not alone, either.  He had brought a woman with him – who also had never been skiing and was expecting me to teach her.

Well, this lady was attractive, intelligent, personable and witty, and I was glad that she had joined us.  Continue reading “DAY SIX – CROSS COUNTRY SKIING”

DAY FIVE – WHERE ARE MY DOGS?

March 14, 2013

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WHERE ARE MY DOGS?

There were, of course, other dogs.  For most of my school years we had two wonderful dogs named Lady and Smoky.  Lady was a Cocker Spaniel Mix and Smoky an AKC Weimaraner.   They had very good lives for dogs.  We lived in a rural area where they could run free almost all the time.  Whenever I would go hiking through the fields or ride our horse, Jeff, they would accompany me.  I didn’t really think of them as pets.  They were just these wonderful animals who were always around and always wanted to do things with me.  We had a good time and I assumed they would always be part of my life. Continue reading “DAY FIVE – WHERE ARE MY DOGS?”

DAY FOUR – WHERE WERE WE IN ’63?

March 13, 2013

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WHERE WERE WE IN ’63?

I was a student throughout the 1960s – first elementary school, then junior high, then high school and finally college.  I got my bachelor’s degree at the end of the 1969-70 school year.  In many ways, the ‘60s seem to have started for me when I started high school.  I seem to meet a number of people these days who grew up attending Catholic schools.  I never really wanted to do that, but my parents thought, for some reason, that I should try it.  Regis Jesuit High School was the closest Catholic high school to our house – though it was still more than 10 miles away – and it had an excellent academic reputation.  I took the entrance exam and was accepted and I attended Regis during the 1962-63 school year.  Besides being far away, the tuition was expensive and all of my childhood friends were still going to public schools.  I mentioned to my parents that although it was interesting to have spent my freshman year receiving a Jesuit education, I would rather go back to a public school and save them some money.  As luck would have it, a brand new high school was set to open for my sophomore year, and it was only a couple of miles from home.  I could walk there if necessary (which I did that several times), and my parents agreed that I should transfer.

Although I still think of it as a “new” school, Arvada West High School (Go, Wildcats!) is preparing to celebrate its 50th Anniversary.  The first school year for Arvada West began on September 3, 1963.  Continue reading “DAY FOUR – WHERE WERE WE IN ’63?”

DAY THREE – REMEMBER TO EAT YOUR VEGETABLES

March 12, 2013

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REMEMBER TO EAT YOUR VEGETABLES

My father came from the Quad Cities area in Illinois and my mother from East Texas.  They were both Marines and met in Washington, D.C. right after World War II.  They married in September of 1946 and moved to California.  About a year later they moved back to Moline, Illinois, where I was born on March 12, 1948.  A few months later, we moved to Dallas, Texas.  My brother Lonny was born there on May 19, 1949.  After another year and a few months, we all moved to the Denver, Colorado area where my brother Jim was born on September 16, 1952.  At about that time we moved to Arvada, a suburb of Denver.  My parents lived there for the rest of their lives.

Right after I finished kindergarten, our family bought a small house on 5 acres a few miles Northwest of Arvada.  I remember it as 3 rooms and a path.  There was a kitchen, a living room with a coal stove to heat the whole house, a bedroom – and out back was the outhouse.  We also had a large chicken coop which had indoor plumbing, even though the house had none.  Continue reading “DAY THREE – REMEMBER TO EAT YOUR VEGETABLES”

DAY TWO – WAITING FOR THE VET

March 11, 2013

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WAITING FOR THE VET

Yesterday I started talking about life and interactions with other people.  Another important consideration is one’s interactions with animals.  I have had dogs around me for almost all my life, cats for many years and, especially while my daughter Suzanne was young, we had gerbils, hamsters, fish, birds, guinea pigs, a rabbit and a chinchilla.  Like most of us, I long believed that veterinarians could be trusted with my pets’ health at least as much as physicians could be trusted with my own.  As time has passed, I have become a bit more leery of both categories of doctor and I have recently decided to find a new vet as the primary care provider for our dog, Darcy.  A few examples of past interactions with the veterinary profession – some positive and some negative – may show why I took that step. Continue reading “DAY TWO – WAITING FOR THE VET”

DAY ONE – BEGINNING

March 10, 2013

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BEGINNING

On March 12, 1948, the life expectancy for an American male was 64 years and 8 months.  Since I was born on that day, I will be celebrating my 65th birthday on March 12, 2013 – and I will be long past my expiration date.  If I was a carton of milk, I would have been thrown out long ago.  Fortunately, though, my wife Cathy has decided to keep me around for at least a little longer. 

Now that I am turning 65, which is a fairly significant birthday in many ways, I have decided to spend a little time writing about what has been a pretty normal, pretty satisfying life.  I intend to do this for the next 65 days – 65 years in 65 days seems to have a nice ring to it.

Why is 65 significant? Continue reading “DAY ONE – BEGINNING”