This may, or may not, become a recurring theme. I have talked in a handful of earlier posts about old memories that were brought to the surface while I was working out at the Cardiac Rehab center (my health club). All of us using the facility are heart patients. I started my 3 times a week workout about 6 weeks after my August 30, 2004 triple coronary bypass operation. Most of us there are in my age group and we have long memories (although the short memory is sometimes missing). Many new friendships have developed across the rows of treadmills and stationary bikes. And we trade stories of growing up and our younger days.
This morning my conversation with David was triggered by the sight of, what I am told, is an F-114 parked at the Torrance Municipal Airport across the way. That led to talk about military aircraft and planes in which we have flown. For me, the memory was of flying cross country in 1958 aboard the Navy's version of the DC-3, which I thought at the time was appropriately designated the R4Q. From there we moved on to airports. David, knowing I grew up in Detroit, remembered flying into Willow Run airport outside Ypsilanti which served the area in the 1950s before Metropolitan Airport was built. We reminisced about now defunct airlines like Capital, Mohawk, Allegheny and Air Illinois.
Somehow, we started talking about summer jobs when we were young and I was able to recall the time I was a gas station attendant (in the days when drivers were not allowed to pump their own gas) at a Speedway 79 station in the Detroit area. And I thought about other part-time jobs I had in my high school and college years: driving a limousine for my uncle's funeral home, stock clerk in a woman's clothing store, selling coal door-to-door during the summer (that didn't last too long), telephone solicitation of leads for an aluminum siding company, parking lot attendant. I worked at a lot of odd jobs but, thank fully, never experienced working fast food. Of course, this was all before McDonalds came along.
The stirring up of old memories is a pleasant additional benefit that comes with the physical activity at the rehab center, especially those conversations on the treadmill.
2 comments:
All my early jobs were farm work. It wasn't until I was a teen that I did other things, like spend a summer on the factory line or wash dishes for the National Guard.
What can I say CHARLES. I was a city boy. My only early memory of farms was an elementary school field trip where we were bussed out in the country to see real cows and the source of milk. ;~D
Post a Comment