Here is another LOOKING BACK blog in which I repeat a blog that I have posted previously. This one was written in 2012. In 2007 a comedy-drama film called The Bucket List was released. The plot followed two terminally ill men on their road trip of things to do before they "kick the bucket".
If you haven't heard about a bucket list, it is a list of all the goals you want to achieve, dreams you want to fulfill and life-experiences you desire to experience before you die.
Now I don't have a bucket list because I don't really have things that I want to do before I die. But I do have a list of things that I wish that I could experience once again, even though many of them are no longer possible.
Maybe it is my "Leaky Pail List" .... For example, their are four church buildings I wish I could visit once again. The Ebenezer Church building in Bethlehem is now gone, but I still have those memories of that building with its two balconies where my grandfather ministered for nine years. In Sunbury, the old Emmanuel church where Dianne and I met and were married is still standing, but appears to be unoccupied. There are so many good memories there and I'd love to walk through the building one more time. My grandfather was our pastor there. Then there is the old Calvary Church in Lancaster that no longer is standing. We used that building for a few years before we built our present building. It was a monster of a facility with rooms everywhere, three balconies, and many offices - a great place to explore. I guess I would also like to tour the Prospect St. building in Lancaster since I was there when we built it and we worshipped there for many years.
I would like to visit the George Ross Elementary School which I imagine has completely changed since I attended there 60 years ago and I would like to tour Malta Temple in Lancaster where we held our first inside church services in 1950. I imagine the interior has been changed to apartments and the bowling alley is probably gone.
There are some homes that I wish I could tour once again - my home we lived in the second time we moved to New Cumberland (it still exists on Eutaw St.), our home in Elizabethtown which is no longer there (torn down by the college), 448 N. Queen St in Lancaster (I enjoyed city living - then), our home on George St. here in Millersville, and of course our homestead on Lemon St. in Lititz. At Christmas I think of the former parsonage in Bethlehem, with the laundry chute, which held so many memories of great family times.
Over the years Dianne and I were fortunate to attend about 25 math conventions in various cities around the country and Canada. There are a few favorites that I'd love to visit once again - San Antonio, San Diego, Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Boston in particular. .... I'd love to see and hear in person the Boston Pops and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir once again. I'd love to ride the Staten Island ferry once again. And I'd love to be able to go to Ocean City, Maryland, once again, just to relax and watch the ocean waves.
I'd also love to ride the train between Harrisburg and Sunbury as I did when I was in college. But sadly they stopped passenger service to Sunbury many years ago. .... Even though I've never been there, I'd also like to visit Austria, Switzerland, Normandy, and Alaska.
I'd love to taste my mother's special macaroni salad once again. Her secret recipe died with her and nobody has been able to recreate that taste, no matter how hard they've tried. I'd love to have a piece of my Mammy's peach-raspberry pie. So delicious when fresh, right out of the oven. She was a great cook and bakery making cookies and pies on her coal stove.
I'd also like to be able to spend some time with members of the Susquehanna basketball team from when I was a student there. For four years we traveled and spent many hours together, but now we haven't all been together in almost 50 years. .... I'd also love to meet with all the math teachers that I hired over 36 years. I've lost count, but there must have been at least 50 that I hired and supervised during my years at Penn Manor. Some of them are now deceased and I have no idea where most of them are.
I'd love to be able to learn to play the piano. I did take lessons as a youngster, but all we had was a beat up piano in our basement and it really wasn't fun to play it. But now I wish that I could. I also wish that I could still play my trombone, but the years and lack of wind have taken their toll on that. It's sad that we don't appreciate some of these things until we are old. .... I'd love to drive my yellow VW bug once more. That was such fun in the snow and it was a great car - until the floor rusted out. .... I'd love once again to be able to sing duets with my wife in church. But our voices aren't needed there anymore and there are many more very talented folks who now minister to us. But singing duets was part of our life for about 40 years.
Even though I was a math/physics major, I'd love to take college physics and college calculus courses again and I'd love to take a major in computers and maybe become a real web master .... And there are so many friends and loved ones I would like to visit again. But that is one thing that on my list that will happen because many are in heaven and I know that I will see them again there. And that is exciting.
So while others make their resolutions and then break them, I have made my "Leaky Pail List". And, I can dream about it. Happy New Year!
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