Eons: Aussherz's profile

Aussherz

Eons member since

Jan 06, 2008

Age, Gender

62, Male

Location

Pensacola, FL

Hometown

Anytown, USA

Places I've been

I've lived most of my life in the Deep South, but have lived in a few other places, notably Long Island, NY and Chicago.

Education

Good Times U, Phrenolgy - 1964 to 1967

Work

Self - 1982 to 2007

Military

USMC - 1967 to 1970

More about me

This is my current take on me:

First time I remember my mother, I was four years old. From whenever to age four, growing up in foster homes was rough, but after being reclaimed by my mother at age four, I can say I had a pretty good childhood. I have no complaints on that score.

Met my father when I was thirteen. I was a difficult kid to like and during the brief times he was around me, he found me so. He was a child himself, and he did, indeed, have a crummy childhood. When he was thirteen, he held down three part-time jobs in order to pay his rent.

I have no children, and it may be that is a blessing for some unborn child. Besides a penchant for neatness, I cannot think of anything about me that would suggest I'd have made a good father.

That said, I do have both my mother-in-law and my mother living here with me. They seem to be reasonably happy, all things considered, so perhaps I'm not as bad as one might otherwise imagine. My mother has advanced Alzheimer's, but at this point in time I have no plans to put her in a nursing home. She was good to me when it counted, and I'm not an ungrateful man.

The woman I married is from a family my mother's family knew for at least five generations and maybe more. We are the first in our families to have married. She likes my mind, which may be the only reason she's stayed with me over the last three-point-five decades.

Oh, by the way, I'm quite bright. Not brilliant, but bright.

While making no claim to athleticism, I am physically strong.... On thinking about it, it'd be more nearly correct to say I used to be physically strong. Today, I would not put me to the test.

I'm a former Vietnam-era Marine. Unlike me, so many of the young men I started out with served in Vietnam. Many of them never made it home, and I know this because I had access to the All-Marine Corps Recorder, a periodically updated database printout.

In any event, at this late stage of my life, l'm beginning to feel the pangs of a "survivor's guilt." Lately a question trails through my mind: Did I deserve the life I went on to lead? Perhaps not.

I have a formidable private library. I sit in front of a computer in one corner of a room filled with books. Do I use my books for reference? I sure do. Some of those puppies are among my oldest and closest friends, and I like visiting with them from time to time.

Speaking of friends, if you are a friend of learning, then you and I have at least that in common.

Ohe! Jam satis est.*

_______________________

* from Horace, and translates loosely as, Whoa! Enough already.

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