Golden Memories

Recently I was shopping at Cherry Hill Orchard in New Danville and I stopped to talk to the owner who had once been my boss during a summer that my brother and I spent picking cherries and apples in the two orchards he managed.  He asked me if I knew how many years ago it was that I had worked for him.  After thinking about it I suddenly recalled that it was 50 years ago - a half century ago.  He remembered because that was the year he built and opened his market.  Since then all the many acres of trees in the two different locations where we worked have all been been cut down and replaced by corn fields and new buildings.  It is so hard to realize that all of this is now gone, almost as hard as it is to believe that 50 years has passed since I worked there.

Since this meeting I have been doing much reminiscing.  So much happened in my life fifty years ago.  We had our first son that year and then four months later almost lost him when he had to undergo emergency surgery for a rare intestinal condition.  The emergency came just days after we moved back to Lancaster County to live in a country apartment in Silver Springs.  It was a miracle that a new doctor that we had just met recognized the symptoms in time to spare Craig's life.  He recognized them because he had seen one similar case, his own daughter.  That miracle is a special memory from 1963.

Fifty years ago I also graduated from Susquehanna University.  We hope to be going back there in October to attend Homecoming and meet classmates that I haven't seen for fifty years.  I'm sure they will all look older ... just like me.  However, I will really miss my roommate and best friend, Jim Herrold, who is now home in heaven.  That same year we also won the league championship in basketball with one of the best teams that Susquehanna has ever had.  For four years I thoroughly enjoyed traveling with the team as scorer and statistician. They were special men and  those are great memories, some of the best of my life.

   This was also the year I began my first teaching job.  At that time I had four interviews and four job offers -  Donegal, Elizabethtown, Hershey and Penn Manor.  It was a very hard decision to make, especially since my wife and I had both previously lived in Elizabethtown and had such good memories about that town.  But the Lord led me to accept Penn Manor's offer and my 39 years there showed that it was the correct decision.  I would later be offered jobs by Wagner College, Ephrata SD, and Manheim Twp. SD, but I was very content with my first choice.  The Lord gave me a great career there.

But one of my biggest memories of that year was the assassination of President Kennedy.  I was teaching an Algebra II class when the announcement came over the loud speaker.  All of us were stunned and there was complete silence in my classroom. It was one of those moments in life that you never forget. Schools were closed for days. We spent the time in Sunbury with my in-laws where we watched all the sad proceedings on television.  I especially remember being glued to the television when Jack Ruby was assassinated right in front of millions of viewers.  I can still picture that event in my mind fifty years later.

Yes, fifty years ago was a very memorable year for me - a half century ago.  My how time has flown.  Recently I asked my wife, "How did we get this old so fast?"  And for that question I have no answer.  But God has been so good to us and has richly blessed us,   And, it is good to hold on to such great memories.