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Seven Decades

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“Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me,
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been.”

Grateful Dead

It seems a bit self-centered to post photos for my own birthday, analogous to sending a birthday card to myself, but it is interesting to look back at those 70 years and reflect upon what has changed and what remains constant.

1940s

1950s

Survival raft in Washington State

1960s

Hit by a car
Boot Camp 1968
Engineering, Science, Technical Program at Andrew Warde High School

1970s

Wedding Day
Springtime with Matt
Headphones

1980s

Garden Cart Ride
China 1985

1990s

The Millennial Years

Plenty of minerals

I’ll finish this posting with a tune for the day. Last year it was the Birthday Dirge but since this is a decade milestone I picked a cheerful song written by Charlie Poole.

spinningbirthday

Old and In The Way – as performed by Loudon Wainwright III

When you walk along the street, how oftentimes you meet
Some poor old man who’s gotten old and gray.
With age his back is bent, in his pockets not a cent,
And for shelter he has no place to stay.

 

His relations by the score, they’ll turn him from the door –
They’ll see him on the street and pass him by.
If you ask them why they do, they’ll turn and say to you,
“He is old, he’s gray, he’s only in the way.”


Now let us cheer them on, for they won’t be with us long.
Don’t sneer at them because they’re old and gray.
Just remember while you’re young that for you the day may come,
When you’ll be old and gray, and only in the way.


Now my message, I am sure, is for rich as well as poor,
For take a rich man when he’s growing old –
His relations ’round him stand, and take him by the hand –
They all want him to die, they want his gold.

 

And what it’s truly worth to own the riches of this earth,
He’ll discover at the closing of the day.
After all he’s like the poor when his journey’s nearly o’er –
He finds he’s old and gray and only in the way.


Now let us cheer them on, for they won’t be with us long.
Don’t sneer at them because they’re old and gray.
Just remember while you’re young that for you the day may come,
When you’ll be old and gray, and only in the way.