POST REUNION

Good Morning, Class of '64

The Good Life - Thomas Kincaid

The trick is to enjoy life. 

Don't wish away your days, 

waiting for better ones ahead.
Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Blue Skies

Ella Fitzgerald

The best times we’ve had on earth
are usually with those we love.
Van Harden
Life in the Purple Wedge!

 

 I've Got the World on a String

Frank Sinatra

Heyday, now that is a funny word ain't it?
Part of a heyday is, you don't never know you
are having yourself one till later when it's all
over with, long gone.
Lee Smith
On Agate Hill  

Ain't We Got Fun

Doris Day

Do what makes you happy,
be with who makes you smile,
laugh as much as you breathe,
and love as long as you live.
Rachel Ann Nunes

 

Prelude - Robert B. Dance

  

Retirement and Beyond

 

As a law enforcement officer in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, I was eligible to retire at age 50. I could have stayed a few more years and increased my annuity significantly, but I retired after 22 years. I have no regrets.

In my retirement, I have read a lot of books. I have written a lot. I have learned much about the Bible and have developed and taught several Sunday School classes. I learned to tie flies and have tied a few hundred - even caught some fish on flies that I tied. I have spent some, not nearly enough, great days fishing and made a new friend - my fishing buddy. I have raised some good gardens and learned to can produce and meats.

Most of all, I have enjoyed life.

 I finally figured out the only

reason to be alive is to enjoy it.
Rita Mae Brown

In the days I have left, I want to continue all those activities. I want to enjoy family and friends. I want to enjoy family and class reunions and Valley Head Homecomings. I want to read more books and write more. I want to learn more of the Bible and become a better Christian and a better man. I want to design a fly and catch a really big trout with it. I want to spend more time in the mountains and on trout streams.

Whatever happens, I pray that I will accept it with faith and grace. I have been richly blessed, so richly blessed that nothing can make my life less than very, very blessed.

If I have learned anything worth passing on to others, it comes from the fount of all wisdom, the Bible:

“I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil - this is the gift of God.” Ecclesiastes 3:12 - 13, New International Version

“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
Ecclesiastes 12:13, New International Version

Work hard and enjoy your work. Enjoy the simple things in life. Love your spouse and family and enjoy them. Fear God - translate that as “maintain an awesome respect for God.” Keep His commandments. We have little control over the number of days in our lives, but we do control the amount of life in our days. These simple rules will keep much more life in our days.

I love life. I love the beautiful, awesome world God created and gave to us. I expect to enjoy the rest of my life. But I look forward with anticipation the next life. I expect to spend eternity with God, and I expect to be reunited with family and friends. I cannot imagine a world better than this one, but that one will be.
I hope you enjoyed some of these writings. They are from a book I wrote called “How We Got By.” It isn’t published, but I’ll print a couple of copies and figure out a way to give them away at the reunion.

Hope to see you at the reunion next week-end. It will be a great time to compare operations and illnesses, grand kids, etc., and to reminisce over our experiences at T.V.H.S. One thing for sure - we can’t lie about our age! We all know how old we are! It should be great! I want to see you there, even though I may not recognize you. Of course you will recognize me - I haven’t changed a bit! Well, I guess I have changed a little - I lie a lot more! Larry E. See,

Class of 1964,

Tygarts Valley High School Bulldogs

 

Tying the Fly - Unknown

 In all of living, 

have much fun and laughter. 

Life is to be enjoyed, 

not just endured.
  Gordon B. Hinckley

Let the Good Times Roll

BB King

And that's how it is in America. 

We look to our communities, 

our faiths, 

 our families for our joy, 

our support, 

in good times and bad. 

It is both how we live our lives 

and why we live our lives.

Mitt Romney

I Feel Good

James Brown

This time, like all times, is a good time,
if we but know what to do with it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Good Life

Tony Bennett - 1963

If only we'd stop trying to be happy 

we'd have a pretty good time.

 Edith Wharton

Man and Woman Fishing - Frank Stick

 But nobody ever tells you in advance when 

you should concentrate on the good times-

that's why you're supposed to do it every day.
  Jordan Sonnenblick

After Ever After
 

Man Fishing on Lake - Unknown

DAY 71 - COUNTING DOWN TO THE 50TH

 Good Morning, Class of '64

Coming Home - Rumara Jewett - http://dmna.ny.gov/news/?id=1280763028

“Though a lifetime of listening to
the music of the world has passed,
even now the tone of the rain on
the roof of my home is the sweetest
sound I have ever heard.”
Kensi Brianne Smith

Coming Home - Leslie White

“It's a thing to see when
a boy comes home.”
John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath

Coming Home - Susan Jenkins

"The thrill of coming home
has never changed."
Guy Pearce

Coming Home - Susan Tino Santillo

“There's nothing half so pleasant
as coming home again.”
Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

Lost in the Foothills - Unknown

“The place where you continually return
for love and acceptance—that's home.”
Richelle E. Goodrich
Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, &
Grumblings for Every Day of the Year

Coming Home - Tim Loughner

If you ventured back to the little town at the head of the valley over the Memorial Day weekend, you probably had a wonderful time visiting with your many friends and relatives. You might have taken in some or all of the festivities that the Valley Head Homecoming has to offer, and you likely feasted like a king on home cooking and picnic fare.

But did you give any attention, as you drove in and out of the upper valley, to the Dame's Rocket blooming on the banks and roadside? Did you notice, at all, the pinks, and purples and whites putting on a show just for you?

As you passed the little white church a short distance out of town, did the field full of Dame's Rocket get your attention? Passing by, if you drove with your windows down, hopefully you breathed deeply the scented air and experienced the sensational aroma of the Dames.

They can be aggressive growers in the garden, spreading rapidly and hiding other more submissive plants. That alone might make them unwanted garden guests, but for the beauty of spring bloom and aromatic bliss, there is nothing like a Dame. In the upper valley, at homecoming time, they grow in abundance welcoming weary travelers home.

There is Nothing Like a Dame
From the 1949 Broadway musical,
"South Pacific", and the 1958 film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pacific_%28musical%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Is_Nothing_Like_a_Dame
South Pacific - 1958

"be it ever so humble,
there's no place like home"
Valley Head Homecoming Parade

Home Sweet Home &
There's No Place Like Home Medley
This piece is a medley of two tunes,
"Home, Sweet Home" written in 1823 by
John Howard Payne and Sir Henry Rowley Bishop
and "There's No Place Like Home", a 1968
Christmas song written by Sammy Cahn and
recorded by Glen Campbell on his
"That Christmas Feeling" album.
 So, the Christmas references were
purely intentional by the authors.
Kristina Austin Scarcelli

“Home is where somebody notices
when you are no longer there. ”
Aleksandar Hemon
The Lazarus Project

Coming Home - Terry Peasley

Memorial Day isn't just about honoring veterans,
it's honoring those who lost their lives.
Veterans had the fortune of coming home.
For us, that's a reminder of when we come
home we still have a responsibility to serve.
It's a continuation of service that honors
our country and those who fell defending it.
Pete Hegseth

 When the Angels Carry Me Home

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs

I fly away to heaven and I won't fall
When the angels carry me home
I want to see Jesus first of all
When the angels carry me home

When the angels carry me home
When the angels carry me home
I want to see Jesus first of all
When the angels carry me home

No more sorrow and no more pain
When the angels carry me home
I ride that heavenly glorious train
When the angels carry me home

When the angels carry me home
When the angels carry me home
I want to see Jesus first of all
When the angels carry me home

I walk Thy highway leading to heaven
When the angels carry me home
I see Jesus waiting for me in heaven
When the angels carry me home

When the angels carry me home
When the angels carry me home
I want to see Jesus first of all
When the angels carry me home

“As truth be told,
homecoming never gets old.”
Hlovate

Soldier Coming Home - John Bollman

“I'm home and safe and filled with the
comfort of being somewhere I've already been.
The ruckus of homecoming is brutally enjoyable
and everyone makes me feel like a champion.
And all I had to do was stay away long enough.”
Miguel Syjuco
Ilustrado

Coming Home - Kaiser

“How often have I lain beneath rain
on a strange roof, thinking of home.”
William Faulkner

Coming Home - Richard Robinson

“The ache for home lives in all of us.
The safe place where we can go as
we are and not be questioned.”
Maya Angelou
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes

Coming Home - Richard Corley

DAY 72 - COUNTING DOWN TO THE 50TH

 Good Morning, Class of '64

(Extremely Rare) Retired Virginia Militia Officer George Washington 23 Years Old

 Without discipline the Army
would just be a bunch of guys
wearing the same color clothing.
Frank Burns

George Washington Leading the Continental Army at Valley Forge

Discipline is the soul of an army.
It makes small numbers formidable;
procures success to the weak,
and esteem to all.
George Washington

George Washington Resigning His Commission as Army-Commander-in-Chief

Nothing can be more
hurtful to the service,
than the neglect
of discipline;
for that discipline,
more than numbers,
gives one army the
superiority over another.
George Washington

George Washington Addressing the Constitutional Convention

 




Another Day with Larry

The Army

(Part Four - Conclusion)

After being released from active duty in November, 1972, I joined the National Guard and later the U.S. Army Reserves. I served in a service battery in an artillery battalion, a psychological operations company, and an ammunition company. I commanded 2 of them.

I spent 7 years in the reserve components. I loved the military, but I could not stomach the incompetence of senior officers and the dirty politics among them. Too many officers looked at the reserves as an exclusive club and a way to get away from the wife and family for a week-end.

Those are the officers who spent almost $300,000 of FEMA money after the flood of 1985 to build a three-bedroom house at Camp Dawson. Sure makes a great place for senior officers and politicians to stay when WVU has a home football game. National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers in the 1970’s were better than their active duty counterparts, but they were poorly led.

My criticism is harsh. Let me cite one example. One hot, early fall Saturday, my battalion had its annual weapons qualification at Camp Dawson. I ran the .45 pistol range for officers. Two or three showed up to fire. All officers were required to fire annually; the rest were paper qualified.

After I closed the range, we cleaned and secured the weapons. I noticed that there were no officers in sight. The troops were busy preparing the evening meal, pulling maintenance on the vehicles, cleaning weapons, and doing all the things soldiers do. But no officers were in sight.

Then it dawned on me. West Virginia University had a football game with Pitt. It was televised, a rarity then. I checked the TV room in the officers’ quarters. Sure enough, almost all the officers were drinking beer and enjoying the game in an air conditioned room while their soldiers were working in the hot sun.

The soldiers were WVU fans, too, but the only ones who got to see that game were the privileged officers. Many, perhaps most of them, did not even realize that they were doing anything wrong. I got drunk with some NCO’s and enlisted men that night. I did not even want to see those officers.

I always preferred the company of the enlisted men, NCO’s, and warrant officers. They were the working men. They knew what they were doing. Few commissioned officers in the national guard and reserve knew what they were doing, and even fewer did much work. Notable exceptions were Major John Carline and Captain Clifford Wilmoth, both good men and excellent officers. If I had been an enlisted man, I probably would have stayed 25 - 30 years and served in Desert Storm.

Each veteran has more memories and more vivid memories from his time in the service than any like time in his life. Most veterans would not take any amount of money for that experience. Of course, they would not repeat it for any amount of money!

I am proud of my military service. I went where I was ordered to go, and I did my duty as best I could. But I am a small-v veteran. I salute capital-V Veterans. They are the ones who served in combat. I honor their service and their sacrifices. I, and every other American, owe them a debt that can never be paid.

I never heard a shot fired in anger. I never experienced fear or hardship. My time in uniform was pretty pleasant. I am a proud small-v veteran who looks up to and salutes capital-V Veterans.

The war in Korea has not officially ended; there was only a cease fire. Therefore I am eligible to join the Veterans of Foreign Wars. I very much admire that organization. But I cannot join it. I would be flying under false colors. I can never be part of that very exclusive brotherhood of capital-V Veterans. My joining would not bother them, but it would bother me.

George Washington at the Battle of Princeton 1777

We try to rehabilitate most people,
but if you have set fire to Chicago,
we probably won't attempt
to rehabilitate you.
Bryan Hilferty

Not everyone is qualified
to join this team.
To enlist you have to both meet
our high standards and be
motivated to serve your country.
Motivation or qualification
alone is not enough.
Bryan Hilferty

My parents were very pleased
that I was in the army.
The fact that I hated it somehow
pleased them even more.
Barry Humphries

Washington Crossing the Delaware - Emanuel Luetze

 Korean War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War

West Virginia National Guard

It has 38 units and activities
stationed in 22 counties throughout
West Virginia and overseas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_National_Guard

A U.S. Air Force Lockheed C-130H Hercules (s/n 94-6701) from the 167th Airlift Squadron, 167th Airlift wing, West Virginia Air National Guard, flying over Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (USA), the junction of the Potomac and Shenandoah (left) rivers. The 167th Airlift Wing transitioned to the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy in 2006.

 Hanover, WV, May 29, 2009 -- West Virginia National Guard troops pick up debris from the side of the highway with construction equipment. The debris was left from early May flooding in Hanover along US Hgwy 52.

Camp Dawson
West Virginia Army National Guard
Camp Dawson lies within close proximity 

of 50% of the nation's entire population. 

An ideal site for military training and conferences.
Offers rugged mountainous regions for SPECIALIZED training.

United States Army Reserve
In times of war, Soldiers in the Army Reserve
may be called up to Active Duty to provide
their expertise for mission success.
http://www.goarmy.com/about/service-options/army-reserve.html
http://www.usar.army.mil/Pages/default.aspx

Washington Praying at Valley Forge

“America's finest - 
our men and women in uniform, 

are a force for good throughout the world,

 and that is nothing to apologize for.”
Sarah Palin

The One We Lost

“America without her Soldiers would
be like God without His angels.”
Claudia Pemberton
 
(For a phone number to speak with Larry See, please send an email request by using the contact form you will find in the column to the right of each post. Larry would love hearing from you. Please include your email address or phone number.)