"Bobby Kattness and the Short Summer Vacation"

Sue, my wife of some 42 years, and I were recently sitting in the waiting area of the Social Security Administration. Just as a side note, L.H. Fathke or Junior to most introduced me to Sue when we were both in Austin. Now back to the SSA waiting room, which was filled with nice, but uncomfortable chairs, and all the required U.S. Government Rules and Regulations concerning the penilities for false statements. My gosh, I’m 65 and my memory, like most if you will admit it, is not performing up to par. I could get 10 years in jail because of a faulty memory.

I would soon be giving statements to the SAA as I filed for the routine benefits. It was at this time I noticed the entire waiting area was filled with old people. I pointed this brilliant observation out to Sue, since this puzzled me. That’s when reality hit home, Sue told me that old people go to Social Security and that I was one of them. “Your old enough for Social Security, then your old”, she said. Well I was not going to accept this and proposed we just backtrack through time and see whose old and whose not!

I knew I was on to something here and would prove my point on aging and old people! As I started my timeline journey it seemed as if it was just a summer ago that we were all in school at MHS. The activities taking place were fresh in my memory, which is working great now. Summer was over and there was football, pep rallies and the on going Friday night dance. School was the center of our universe and classes by Mr. Smith, Mr. McCarty and Mrs. Cole, to name a few, had us performing the required extra efforts to meet their standards. There were school and outside functions to keep us busy and all were accompanied by some of the best music ever. And there was always time for some R&R at the Milk Bucket and Dairy Land.

So, using some of Mr. Smith’s techniques, I quickly calculated the time span to today, 47 years. I checked again and it is still 47 years! If MHS was so fresh in my memory, where did all those years go? How did they get away so quickly and so unnoticed? Stealth years are a possibility.

At this point my position on “old” has taken a few hits. So Sue and I did a little rundown on time spent. Upon leaving the shadow of MHS there was two years at Tyler Jr. College followed by a year of work. Then it was back to school at UT in Austin and where I met Sue. We were married in September of ’64. I stayed at UT, some part time, until I was drafted in ’66. The US Army took two years and Kenneth Dietzman and I were in at the same time and had some mutual experiences.

Once out of the Army it was back to UT and a rush to finish and get out to the real world. I spent three years in a couple of technical positions ending with Texas Instruments. At this time I made a career change that was more change than anticipated and would take up the next 33 years of our lives. I went into finance and insurance and quickly gravitated to sales and marketing in insurance.

Now insurance was never on my top 10 in jobs wanted; however, this worked out very well. I worked for the company, did not sell to individuals, and managing products, distribution and a marketing staff. Great people, management and company made for an enjoyable career. Now there was other stuff going on during that 33 years. You all know, the normal family stuff.

First there were the children, Michael in ’72 and Stacy in ’77. Notes here, both of our children were adopted. You really can’t tell the difference in children, there was just no morning sickness and hormone stuff going on.

The company I worked for was in a growth mode all through my career. This created opportunities at different locations around the country. First was five years in Chicago and then four years at our home office in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Both of these jobs had a lot of air travel to those areas of problems and/or opportunities. Just another note for information purposes, it is cold and snows in both these locations.

Sue had enough of the cold, she tracked time by, “how many winters” we were there. So in 1979 I jumped at the chance to transfer to marketing and took a position in Oklahoma City. Things are looking good now, Michaels in school and Stacy is not far behind. Then the Texas coastal market, which was the largest in the US, opened and we got picked to fill that slot in Houston. The oil boom made for a great time to be in that area, my company was and is the largest insurer of mobile homes. Yes, I know about tornados but that keep the job interesting, very interesting.

A short stopover in Plano then we were off to Atlanta, Georgia. Both children were in school and, at this point, I said no more moves. This worked out very well with Michael completing 2 and a half years at Valdosta State in communications. Stacy graduated from West Georgia and worked in international marketing, only to give it all up to marry and provide us with grandchildren. Well Stacy and a super son-in law collaborated and Gavin is five and Ava Grace is two and is a child on a mission, bold and with attitude.

With all these moves I still was able to stay in touch with several of my classmates and friends. With family in McGregor there was always the opportunity to visit or just bump into someone. Football games and the first of dove season were prime times to find old friends. Of course I would have loved this group to be much larger. I believe our multi-class reunions reinforced this point with most everyone.

I retired, a little early, in 2005 and Sue works part time, just to get spending money for the grandchildren. Michael moved to Anchorage, Alaska for a shot at a radio producer’s job and all was well. Everything except my argument on old, which if we are not now, we soon will be because of this stealth time thing. So, greatly dejected I took my place in line with the other, “old people”; however, I am still at a loss for where those 47 years went!

Life has been good to us and we fell blessed and are thankful for this bounty.
Recently, our main concerns have been where to live as retirees and what options do I really need on this Medicare deal, A or A & B and what is this Part D. I receive mail every day with a promise of a good deal on backup for parts B and D, if I'll just send money. But no one gives you any details. I think there is something wrong with this picture.

This June all this changed with a phone call from my brother Billy in Anchorage. Michael was in the hospital with a pain in his back. After exams, x-rays and a biopsy he was diagnosed as having multiple myeloma, a chronic cancer in the lymph system that attacks the bone structure and production of blood cells in the bone marrow.

Needless to say, our priorities changed. We now have a small condo leased in Anchorage and are immersed in their health care system, which is very good and efficient. Since we now have two homes to maintain, Sue and I rotate about once a month. One in Alaska and the other in Georgia.

Michael’s treatments will consist of oral chemotherapy, some radiation, IV chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants. Then they will start over and go through the same sequence. The transplants will be done in Seattle at the University of Washington Medical Center. A group of cancer research doctors here pioneered the bone marrow transplant process. The goal of all these treatments and procedures is to achieve a status of remission with this cancer. That’s the good news; the bad news is that remission is measured in months, not years.

My purchase of a new set of golf clubs and my golf game are now on hold. However, I refuse to accept the “old” label and I still don’t know what Part B represents.