10 - 20 - 30 Virus

I found this at Mel's blog at www.unretouchedphoto.com I always do every thing Mel tells me to. Mel discovered it at Mary DeMuth's blog www.relevantblog.blogspot.com

QUICK! What were you doing 10 - 20 - 30 years ago?

TEN YEARS AGO - I was living in the city with THGGM and our three teenagers 13, 15, and 16. Youngest Son was happily attending middle school where he was involved in all sorts of athletic pursuits. Oldest Son was being unschooled, Daughter was being homeschooled. They both had jobs. I remember exactly what I did at that time. I drove. I drove and I drove and I drove and I swore that if the opportunity ever arose I would not have a car and I would never drive. All three kids were involved in community theater. Wednesday was THGGM's day off and for the most part, we escaped from reality and he drove ME interesting places - or to our bi-weekly counceling appointments. We lived directly nextdoor to THGGM's mother and brother. This, my friends, was not a 'good thing'.

TWENTY YEARS AGO - I was living in a different house in the city with THGGM, a first grader and two pre-schoolers. THGGM and I were overly involved in everything. We were still running on the premise that if you weren't insanely busy, you could not possibly be serving God. We were insanely busy. It would be a few years before we held still long enough to be able to hear the 'still small voice' over the 'storm' of activity. Our family spent a conciderable amount of time at beaches, parks, museums and the zoo. I'm thankful that we realized our children needed space, as we packed them tightly into a tiny tiny bedroom. Bunk beds and a pull out mattress, we told ourselves it was 'cozy'. It was in this same bedroom that THGGM's brother died 10 days ago.

THIRTY YEARS AGO - Oh! I was SO happy. Although, you could never tell that by looking at me. But, I was! THGGM and I were engaged! We'd only been dating for four years, so it was about time, although, we were only nineteen years old. THGGM was attending college. I was living at home and working a 2nd shift job that I loved, balancing nightly check runs from several different banks. I could run a Mohawk data entry system, an IBM 129, a paper tape machine, a ten key adding machine and a check sorter. I pretty much spent my nights jumping from one machine to the next. I loved the people I worked with. Yet, I remember hating that they listened to the most horrible country music station. I learned to love the smell of orange pipe tobacco which my boss smoked when things were going well. Forever I will associate the smell of cigeratte smoke with the meaning that 'things are not going well' because he smoked like a chimney then. The women I worked with were all moms who worked part-time. I remember they were called 'the old ladies', although I do remember each one of them turning thirty! Oh, how perspectives change.