At what point in your life were you the happiest? For me it had to be my mid to late teens about age 14 through 18. I worked after school and either had a motor cycle or a car with plenty of money and all the freedom in the world. I think if I could relive any period of my life it would be those years. Plenty of cute girls to date, still fit enough to play several sports, and rock & roll was coming of age.

Life has been generally good, but never quite so good as those years. That would have been the late 1950's and the early 1960's, when Elvis was king, TV was fuzzy Black and White, flat tops were the hair cut of the day, and traffic jams were still pretty rare.

The '40's & 50's. Gas was cheap [25 cents]. A new Ford pickup cost me $1988 out the door with a $596 trade in. The rent on a small cabin was $45 bucks a month. I was making $100 bucks a week. Hamburger was 29 cents a pound.Model 92 Winchesters were going from 25 to 50 bucks each at the local gun show. Hell, I bought my 95 Winchester 35 in great shape for 45 bucks. Gosh, I was single then & had money to invest. Bought some stocks & made out very well.Korea was over & I spent 9 years the the National Guard. I served my country better than Bill C. ever did. I married in 1960 & things never looked as good ever again. My 3 kids all do much better than I ever did but I believe I had more fun.

I was lucky to grow up before everything went to mud. I think I can point out periods where I was deliriously happy.

Late teens. Young and free.

Married. I had it made.

Adopting our son. Probably the happiest I've been in my life.

__________________
"He was kinda funny lookin'"

When my kids were home and old enough to hunt and fish with me.
Had a Springer Spaniel back then too. Good times chasing grouse.

The time i was in the navy. 18 year old kid operating million dollar pieces of equipment. Kinda sad when it came time for me to leave.Frank

Now.

But as I look back, I realize with only a couple of exceptons, ice always thought that.

__________________
Soli Deo Gloria

My nine-year third and final marriage, and the three and a half years we dated but didn't live together before that. We were both sober alcoholics. We really believed we were made for each other. It was the happiest, most contented time of both our lives until leukemia took her. In January she will have been dead twenty years. I've lived alone since she left us, knowing I'd never find another soulmate like her.

The thing I miss the most is the laughter. It was a hilarious marriage.

Sorry, been thinking about her a lot the last couple of days.

__________________
Oh well, what the hell.

Couldn't have said it better, myself.

John

I would tell you but the boss keeps walking by and looking over my shoulder.

Probably the 4 years I spent in Australia...

Never. I did have my absolute best year winning in the casinos out here in 2014, but there's no happiness anymore when you win after playing heavily for years.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

I'm thinking the eighth month.

late teens early 20 s fast cars lots of women plenty of good times dont regreat nothin. then meat the love of my life we had tons of fun now that we have gottin older and had a kid. now were just in the food chain or maybe thats how i feel. but still happy just wish i was young again

Tomorrow, if I get it.
Everyday is a gift we should all treasure even the rough ones.

__________________
LEX ET ORDO

Have to agree! Woke up this morning still breathing! 😁

__________________
Wherever my mind isn't
Jim

Maybe right now. I got remarried about 4 years ago to a great gal and we have the kind of love I thought was only in fairy tales. We just got back from the Bahamas and are already planning our next vacation, and my construction business is doing very well with a pretty bright future. Everything was so terrible about 7 years ago any decent life would seem very happy to me.

In the womb I'm sure. Been trying to get back in ever since

Through my early 20s. Motorcycles, women, all the fun stuff of the 70s, and real honest to God friends that I had known from a small kid that were as wild as me. You will never know a man as well as the man you knew as a kid. They are all dead and gone, mostly from trying to live that life for too long.

Right now.

I'm retired and going to die broke if it kills me.

__________________
That's just somebody talkin.

I've had many high points in my life...the birth of my son, a great wife...but the best time in my life was the four years in the navy. I traveled the world and saw all manner of things from different cultures. Worked on million dollar airplanes and gained confidence in myself as the time passed. I basically grew up while there which prepared me for life in general.

Every day at 5pm!

Met my wife when I was a senior, she was a junior in HS, different schools. Married 42 years as of Aug. 19. She is a saint. Two great kids. I have worked extremely hard my entire life and now close to calling it quits at age 62. Best times were when we were first married - not rich but made ok money. Had the cars, motorcycles, partied, had fun. Then Christ took control of my life and everything changed. Best stretch was my 30+ years in education. Started an at risk program at a high school and helped many kids get through life. Just helped parents open a brand new Christian Classical School where I am the headmaster. I see more and more that my life has not been my own but I have been called to help others.

The day they declared that I was CANCER free!
CANCER Sucks!!!

I was a child of the 50's and 60's, had great parents that raised me right....left home when I was 17.
Worked a profession for 35 years that due to my career path required moving 11 times to different areas of the country. I retired in 08, then worked for another 6 years as a security contractor. During these 41 years I met all kinds of people, in all kinds of situations; good, bad and in between.
To answer the OP question: My present station in life is my happiest period, I survived a hazardous vocation and all of the pitfalls that accompanied that. I have a great wife who is also a retired LEO(so she is on the same page as I am on most things), we have kids and grandkids who live here locally, and we are spending time with them.
My parents are still alive - in their 90's, live next door and now I spend time with them & care for them, repaying them a fraction of what I owe. I am healthy, my wife and kids and grand kids are healthy - which is a blessing and should NEVER be taken for granted. I have my hobbies to keep me active and am fortunate to have some solid friends who I shoot with, ride MC's with, dive with and in general enjoy our time together.
Probably for the first time in my life I have a freedom that I have never known before....I go to bed when I want and get up when I get up....and pretty much do what I want when I want.
I had some lively times in years past, but live for today, because tomorrow is promised to nobody.

I can't say I have been there yet, I thought marrying the love of my life was then the birth of my daughter was then she gave me a granddaughter and I thought that was it but watching her grow makes my life happier every day.

Besides the special moments of the birth of my sons, seeing my older marry, the birth of his son two years ago- I'd have to say the happiest extended period was my junior year in college, that was 1978.

I did great in school, had an amazing summer job on either end of that year, a wonderful girlfriend, a great dog, a thoroughly ****** motorcycle (1968 HD XLCH) that kept breaking down but was fun as anything the majority of the time. I was in great shape-hit my max of 325lb on the bench press ahahaha. Great friends (two I still stay in touch with) and overall life was grand.

Please don't be sorry, not ever. Here we are a bunch of men for the most part who again for the most part have never met and you say something that makes me realize that else feels the same as I do about my wife.
She is my second, but she is my true love. We went through the cancer ordeal after 1 year of marriage and she begged me to move on if she didn't pull through. I told her no.
I knew I could never hold another, never love another, never laugh the same. She is my everything and I thank God she made it. Every day aditional with her is special.
I am sorry your wife did not make it.

I guess mine was when the kids were small. They're teenagers now, and I'm about to pinch their heads off!

I worked too hard when I was a teenager to enjoy it much, and hated school like the Plague.

When my girls were home and little. From 6 to 10 years old. My wife was younger and healthier. I was young and skinny, owned my own business, and had the world by the tail. Now I am older and unemployed. My wife's heath is slipping. The kids moved away of course. And at present we are at our oldest's house holding her hand as she slowly dies of cancer at 39 years old.

Happiest time of my life. That’s an interesting subject.

I guess it would have to be the time between my 16 birthday and my 25 year. On my16th birthday an “older” woman (she was 17) changed my status from boy to man. I was a gear head and that was the era of the muscle cars and serious street racing. I was fully involved in that and owned and built hopped up cars for that endeavor. The Albany NY area was a hot bed of that illegal street racing.

I got out of high school which I downright hated and started working a good paying job (union building construction) which gave a single guy like me a very good income to support my car and drink/girl habit., The drinking age was 18 and the birth control pill just hit the drugstores, the rock and roll music was GREAT, the factories were selling hot cars right out of their showroom. (I had a couple)

To be honest how I survived that era I really do not understand but it was a great time.

Of course since then I have been happily married for 45 years and a couple years ago my doctor declared that after 5 years since the cancer was cut out of me I was now a survivor.

Like I said in the beginning it was an interesting time!

__________________
14 S&W Revs none with locks!

Freaking cancer sux's. My misses been through it three times and survived. I never prayed so much or so hard in my life. I been through it once. I wasn't upset when I found out I had it. Dying didn't worry or bother me.
I don't care either way. Cancer can ravage my body but it can't touch my soul. This is prostate cancer month. Get it checked. It's hitting men from all ages. Caught early like breast cancer it's curable

Been married 41years to the same woman. Funny my family didn't like her at first. Then they loved her. How stupid people can be.

Best time of my life......building 200,000lb lathes with 144" chucks that are accurate to the millionths. The three lathes I built for the jet engine manufacturing that were more accurate that the test equipment that was used to check it. I was very fussy about the quality of my workmanship. Each lathe all three had the same accuracy. I build cnc lathes from bare castings up to the time of shipping them. They were my babies.

Maybe watching my kids grow up into responsible adults. They all own there own homes, new cars with good jobs. The Apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. We guide them the best we can then they are on there own.

My wife won't let me talk about those days before the yoke.

Many times, but being with my first love at age 17 was the first time, until after declaring undying love, she dumped me.

Probably right now because the rewards in life greatly outweigh the challenges. Tomorrow I'll have been married to my loving wife for 35 years. My kids turned out to be productive members of society and are starting families of their own. For the most part, family and friends are in good health. Life is good...

__________________
"Shall not be infringed"

Many of us, myself included, have undergone similar pain in the loss of a loved one to cancer, or are in the process of fighting our own war with the disease. I can only imagine that the loss of a child must be heartwrenching, since it violates the natural order. I wish you strength, love, and courage in the face of the your daughter's passing.

2003-2010. My Daughter making huge strides professionally and socially, Wife was healthy and strong, Mom and Dad still alive, my dearest Friends living close by, work that I loved doing...

"Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got till it's gone?"

I grew up in the fifties when there were no computers or video games. We spent out time outdoors in the fresh air. For one week, during the month of August, a traveling fair would come to town. Kids and grown ups alike looked forward to the event. Many times the temperature was hot enough to melt cotton candy but we didn’t care.

The fair was a signal that summer would soon be over and we would be back in school. But for one week, it was the fair with its Ferris wheel, colored lights and the fun games that was the focus or our attention.

__________________
A gun has no brain.. use yours

Sounds like were kinda going through a similar thing. A few weeks ago l met this fantastic gal, and we have hit it off big time. I HOPE she is the one I've been waiting for. We have the same likes on for, places to visit--and get this, she asked me where are the places that if I were to marry--where. I told her either at a Lighthouse, or in the Cathedral at Heidelberg Castle in Heidelberg, Germany. Sabrina almost freaked with my answers because, those are two of the three places she would like to wed at.

Also, I haven't felt this good about girlfriends or potential girlfriends, in twenty years. The one from twenty years go, I almost married. Another of the great things about Sabrina is she is a great Pastry Chef.

I've had her constantly on my mind since first meeting her.

Right now!

__________________
CCA of North Carolina
A.D.S.I

As good as my life has been I kinda hope I haven't reached that "happiest time" yet.

__________________
Quando omni flunkus moritati.

The last one.

__________________
Music/Sports/Beer fan

ages 18-23 those where the happiest years of my life.

It was the Spring of 1961 - I was in my senior year in college, about to graduate and join the Army as a newly minted 2d Lt.

I think the happiest moments in my life were in that time period when my future wife and I were sitting in my car at a drive-in. I had proposed to her (after she urged me to) a few weeks earlier, and I was just beginning to realize that I was the luckiest guy in the world. The girl I had loved since we were in third grade actually loved me too, and we were going to be married.

That realization was capped when I went to the snack bar to get a couple of sodas and I bumped into a former girl friend. She was getting all chummy with me, and in my mind I was saying to myself "You've been way outclassed now, babe. No comparison." We parted cordially, and that was the last I ever saw of her.

I came back to the car knowing I was probably the happiest and luckiest guy in the world. We're still married after 54 years, four children, five grandkids and one great-grandchild.

John

__________________
- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

I'm with Pecos Bill. Although my life has been good, I believe the best is yet to come.

Today.....................Joe

__________________
Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

1973, crazy in love with the love of my life, problem was we were both married to someone else. We got back together in 1990 and stayed together married to each other until I lost him to cancer & kidney failure in Dec. 2013. Even the the 6 years fighting cancer were good.

The day before I was banned by mistake.

__________________
Thirty characters. Exactly...

Every day of my life BEFORE I met my wife.

SOOOOOOOO not kidding.

__________________
Un-Reconstructed Southerner

SOOOOOOOO sad.

__________________
"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Do my best to live every day to the max and while I have some regrets I hope and believe every day is better than the last. Every day is a gift,enjoy it.

__________________
Hue 68 noli me tangere