What does one think about when reaching the end of their eighth decade thus enjoying the one percent club? Yeah, not that financial one. It is the club that apparently includes those of us born into this world between the years of 1930 and 1946 and are still alive. Depending on whether you enjoyed the time or not, I suppose many of us dwell on the people and events helping create those times.

One of those times occurred fourteen years ago, (seven hundred and twelve columns ago, but who is counting), when Scott Wilson put a “want ad” in the paper looking for somebody to write about the goings-on in Port Ludlow. We met, I wrote number one for him, he took a poor picture of me to attach to the column and we were off and writing. I confess to the following literary accomplishments as qualifications for this lofty position. The best grade I got my academically substandard college freshman year at Wabash College was in English. I wrote over one hundred letters to BJ, my new wife, whilst deployed on the USS Belmont the summer of 1969.

While you may remember it as the ”Summer of Love,” I wrote a “president’s letter” for “Der Sportwagen,” the monthly newsletter of the Kansas City Region of the Porsche Club of America. Most of which went unread. I wrote lots of proposals for IBM products while in their employ in the 1970’s, ‘80’s and ‘90’s. Even more of which probably went unread. I have written fifty years of Xmas letters. All of which went read. Boiled down to facts, Scott needed some content and from my perspective, as Garrison Keillor says, “It is better to be fool in the world than to have no occupation at all”.

Back in the spring of 1970 my Navy friend Charlie Evens came from the National Security Agency  over to Arlington, Virginia to hang out for an afternoon. He drove his well-used 1958 Porsche 356. We spent some time out on a drive and I was hooked. Within a month I had convinced BJ that we needed a second car to facilitate my travel to the Pentagon and she opposed my thought that a nice Harley Davidson would be an adequate solution. A nearby guy selling used Porsches provided an agreeable solution in the form of a 1965 Porsche 356SC Cabriolet. Man, that was cool and we made lots of friends through the seven different cars we have driven. At the end of my seventh decade my two children commissioned a portrait of the five Porsche I had owned to that time. Three months later I got number six and they are now perplexed on what to get for this birthday. I think they should save their money for the end of my ninth decade.

When it appeared I might overcome the lackluster results of my academic efforts at Wabash and graduate, it looked like I should actually search for employment. I interviewed a couple of places and found no immediate takers although one unnamed company suggested I consider a position they had in Denver since there were few minorities either in the company or the town. Welcome to fifty years ago. My father suggested I take a look at IBM and they offered me a job. Well, I have recently found out that IBM’s then CEO took six years to get out of high school so the academic record was not disqualifying. In addition, IBM hired about fifty thousand new employees in the mid ‘60’s so I should be able to sneak into that  crowd. 

In the early 2000s we were considering a move to the Pacific Northwest from Kansas City to be closer to our grandsons and their parents. Our daughter spent a “girls weekend” here in Port Ludlow and suggested we take a look. We spent a month in 2006 and 2007 at the North Bay Condos and were convinced this place would work. We saw more of the Olympic Peninsula attractions those two years than we have since. Must be the demands of this column.

As with you, there are many life influencing people and events that have impacted who we are and what we have done. There are more than either you or this column can tolerate but feel free to send some along, as long as you are a “one perenter”.

Love a curmudgeon and have a great year - ned@ptleader.com.