Every Breath a Gift: a Memoir – Interlude to Chapter 6, More Retirement Activities

by
Larry Pearce
6/11/22

Ready for boarding, Arnold Palmer Airport, Latrobe, PA

When I think that Susan and I have traveled to 20 different countries and easily as many states, I have to check my compass. We know of few friends and family who have had this opportunity. Actually, most of these trips took place before I could have been considered “retired.” Understand, I hadn’t worked full-time for a company or corporation since I was age 42, so I guess you could say that I’ve spent half my working life “semi-retired.” I often question whether we would have taken the time and money to travel as much had we been employed full-time. Our state of retirement before retirement afforded us many luxuries that “working people” just don’t have, such as trying-out new career opportunities, most part-time. Later, it seems like we were well-suited for those Covid pandemic years. There were few places we had to be. Walmart even brought our groceries to the trunk of our car. Most decision-making involved which recliner to sit in to watch which TV news. We churched via YouTube, unless I was asked to play for the service, and then I had to decide which mask to wear.

As I said in the last chapter, some of our church mission projects were combined with vacation travels, and I’ll get more deeply into that in this chapter. Most other trips included visiting family around the country. Still other get-aways were made to research genealogy. The second installment in Chapter 6 covers this. Next to working for my Lord and His human family, and touring two weeks in The Holy Land, I am most proud of the 20+ years researching, writing, and posting articles about family history. Yes, I’ve shaken  hands with many relatives, but I’ve also met virtually with “cousins” from as far away as Tasmania and walked  the lands once inhabited by my English, Scottish, and Irish ancestors. I’ve been blessed with a lovely and loving wife whose ancestral lands we’ve also explored, mostly Germany and Switzerland. I hope to finish this Memoir soon and go back to editing, revising, and amending their stories and finally, printing everything for local libraries and history centers along with posting everything for all the world over many generations to read.

The final section of the upcoming chapter will consider some additional activities Susan and I hope to continue our involvement in, before we take that final move into a retirement village. I must confess that I haven’t yet listed all the possibilities in my mind. You’ll just have to read on to find out. One idea that came flooding in just this week as I tried to organize hundreds of vacation photos was to post just a few in Chapter 6A and then build “digital albums” to include as addendums in the “new and revised” Memoir expected later in the year. I also have short video clips from old 8-mm films that I want to share as a way of preserving them for posterity. LegacyBox kindly converted them, for a fee of course, but it’ll be my kids and me getting them online, I’m sure. So, I’m excited that you have taken the time to read, look, and listen so far, and I promise the months ahead will be even more rewarding.

Move to: Chapter 6A – More Retirement Activities, Vacation Travels

Return to: Table of Contents

Last revised 6/18/22