Well, I think a big turning point was when I quit drinking. I think that was a big one. I never knew my billfold could get so thick, if you understand what I mean?

And my friends changed. I thought I had friends when I was drinking. When I quit why they quit. I used to golf with all them guys, you know? You know that story? 19th hole…I’d stop on my way home…

But, when I stopped drinking a lot of my friends, that was socially, they slowed down too, but I hardly see them and they’re in the same town I’m in, but I still stop at the clubs but I’m a coffee drinker now.

A couple years ago I took 90 pounds off.

They always say your children copy off of their – boys copy off their father, well my oldest son copied off of me. So, now he’s got all them habits. Now my grandson is copying off of him. So…maybe I didn’t do it right when my boys were young. They all socialize now. They are going through more or less what I went through.

My oldest daughter-in-law, she says, “When does my husband make the change like you did, Grandpa?” and he just turned 50. But, yeah, that was one of my big turning points. Then, my wife, I gotta get her out of the house so I got her over here in the center to try and get her active, and then getting over here myself, why I end up getting active.

Well, I try and help John getting this mail site off the ground, this lunch, and then we got a lot of other things coming on down the road. We’re hoping for a new building some day.

I’m president of what they call SCO, Seniors Center Organization, and we meet once a month and have a little meeting, birthday for the month, anybody who’s bad health or passed away.

Then I get to sit in on board meetings, but I don’t have no voting privileges. I really think this center is fortunate getting hold of John, but like I kid John, don’t pack up and move on which I am afraid some day he may, you know? Well, you don’t know.

And we’ve got a good cook back there. I keep kidding him I don’t want him to leave either. Because he’s so good. I’m afraid he could go to greener pasture if he wanted to.

I like this place (the senior center) Some days these older ladies kinda put the pressure on me and so I let my wife sit here and visit. Maybe if we’re not very busy at lunch time I’ll slip over to Embett’s for a little bit and have a couple cups of coffee. Over there I gotta pay fifty cents a cup, here I can drink it for nothing!

But that gets me out a little bit and I’m an early riser. I get up at 4:30 or 5 o’clock. Best time of day. Get my wife around and then maybe I’ll slip up to what they call Wilson’s Hamburger Shop and shoot the gossip a little bit and have a cup of coffee.

Oh, I suppose the biggest one was when we lost a boy. That was in the days of long hair and bib overalls and bare feet, Class of ’73. He was hitchhiking, a semi picked him up, fell asleep, took them both.

Oh, we have a picture, picture albums and this and that, but I learned to carry a lot of that. I don’t show it probably like my wife does. Now, you know, all the boys are married. They kind of lean to the wife’s side on holidays and you know how that is?

But that bothers my wife but it don’t bother me as long as they are happy. You know, that’s…Our door is always open if they want to stop around and pay us a visit. They don’t seem to come as often as my wife wants them to, especially with the grandkids, but I realize they are both working today. If they have any idle time, why, they like that on their own.