Your most successful accomplishment

Keeping my wife of 53 years from throwing me out with the rest of the trash. The love of my life

When in my late teens, I read a phrase that made sense to me! It's not your fault if you're not the smartest person in the room! Correct that by marring someone smarter than you!

She and I made 4 smart kids! They've given the world 9 extremely smart grandkids.

My personal greatest accomplishment (besides marring SWAMBO) is that I can find the best hamburger in any town I stumble into!

Ivan

I couldn't say. We all have our moments. Sometimes a moment turns into a lifetime.

Maybe learning when to speak, and when to be silent: work in progress.

Decisions; each may be easy for some, while difficult for others. Faith was easy for me, as it was and is a gift.

Managed to stay on this side of the grass for 50 yrs is probably the best.

100 straight in skeet was cool

House and cabin up north paid for is cool

And once I saw a blimp.

Have outlived so many people that it bothers me.
And I have been involved in stuff where lots of folks didn’t survive.
I like to say -
‘Been shot at and mostly missed.
Been **** on and often hit!’
Who hit me? A-hole with a Shotgun up in Indiana.
But every so often, a Good Omen appears.
Just the other day, a Lady gave me a free Biscuit.

Marrying the tiny little lady that stole my heart 53 years ago as of Oct. 30. Finding that person that was meant to be with you had to come from a higher power.

I have accomplished nothing that hasn't been given to me from above. Sadly I wasted many of those gifts through my stubbornness. It ain't over yet, though . . .

I'm with the original poster. It is my family.

I’ve almost made it to my 70th! My kids have turned out great. Jr settled on the trades and got his journeymans card a few years ago after spending some time in the oil fields and is making far more than I ever did.His younger sister ditched the corporate life (fashion)in NY a few years after graduation,took a job at NYU,( she claims to have pestered them until they gave up and hired her [emoji23])started climbing the administrative ladder and earned a masters in forensic psychology on their dime and is finishing up an msw (also on their dime) while planning to open her own practice.They both surprised me [emoji4]

It is very heartening to read the replies! I was beginning to believe I am a fool for having a value system and not ascribing to the situational ethics of the moment. As Sinatra sang, "now the days grow short and I'm in the autumn of my years". It's getting late in the game and before I know it the final hand will be dealt. I will lean on the Heavenly Father and play it true to the end with the best I can muster.
I find it comforting that there are others out there across the distance tonight having the day's last coffee and occasionally a couple fingers of Bulleit Rye contributing to this thread, that hold to a set of values designed to bring the next generation along and hand over the reins of a very special nation...
May God bless you one and all.

This month, my wife is celebrating 50 years of marriage with me. She married me when I was a soldier and followed me through many assignments. This lady was diagnosed with uterine cancer and had to have a hysterectomy early in our marriage before we had children. When I retired from the Army, she set up home in North Alabama where I found work for the next 25 years. When I retired-retired, she wanted to move to Arizona and I followed her this time to a place where we've never been happier. Wherever we were at, this lady made every community we lived in better. This woman's help, encouragement, and love has certainly made me a better man.

Photo taken the day before we were married.


Later this month, I'm taking her to New York City (her choice) for our 50th. I'm making sure it's all first class for a first class lady.

So my greatest accomplishment is marrying the best and finest woman I have ever known.

God bless,
John the Blessed.

Having my wife for 53 years before her passing this April. Having a son and daughter that are Very successful and 4 grandkids that are also Very successful. Guess surviving Vietnam was another….

The wife and I have two very accomplished daughters, both graduated college Summa Cum Laude. The oldest is a CPA whose next promotion will be to Partner in her firm, youngest daughter is a Physical Therapist who advanced to Clinic director. Two years ago she transitioned to Orthopedic sales and is currently Territory Manager. Both married great guys and have beautiful homes, youngest had two sons and the oldest will give birth to a son in early February 2025.

I have a pride in the relations I've had with people in my professional capacity. When I was doing title work as an attorney I consulted a lot with the local surveyors, and was able to join their professional society as an Associate member since I learned a lot about land measurements and surveys. Recently I ran into one of the surveyors I worked with a lot back in the 1980s and 1990s. Out of the clear blue sky he said how much he enjoyed working with me and a lady attorney I had taught about land descriptions because we understood a lot about the work he did.

Part of my duties on my final job was collection work. I would go to the minor courts to interview judgment debtors about their assets and income to see if it was feasible to pursue collection efforts on the judgments against them. This meant the judgment debtors had to come to court and be prepared to go under oath and answer a lot of questions from the representative (me) for the creditor. From being laid off in the recent past I had some empathy for the debtors, and I came to the conclusion that these people weren't going to pay any faster if I treated them like dirt. Yes, I had a job to do, but I decided right from the start that I was going to treat the debtors with dignity and respect. I was very proud that a bunch of the judgment debtors thanked me for making the process a lot easier than they thought it was going to be.

Life is like a river for the most part, and if you do the right thing - honor and love your parents, find a loving spouse and and have a good family life together, a successful work career - all the expected things a good person and good citizen does, then it flows smoothly for the most part and the trip is a good one. I guess that's me for the most part, but here and there along my 81 years some small things stand out that I'm proud of.

Here's one:
I got to be an expert on some very high speed, multimillion dollar packaging machines, and from time to time got calls to go to our factories to help with a problem.
On one of these, I met Calvin, a mechanic I knew from other times in the factory. He was thirtyish, eager to learn and a natural mechanic. He was stumped on a section of the machine, and I handed him some feeler gages and said "This section has to be dead parallel, with the rollers at 0.5 mm +0.1/-0.0 apart. He fanned out the gauges, said "This one?" It was 0.7. "No, 0.5" He fanned again said "This one?" It was 0.3. I looked at him for a moment and asked "Calvin, can you read?"
Sheepishly - "No."
Incredulous, I asked "How did you get through the mechanics' school on this machine?"
The manuals were thick, and candidates had to successfully perform many delicate setting tasks on the machine to graduate. He told me he took the manual home, had his wife read it to him, and he memorized it. I knew he a had a good work ethic, but this stunned me. If he couldn't do the work on his own, he'd lose his job as a mechanic and get cut back to a lesser paying job.

I walked him off the floor to employee assistance, and enrolled him in a reading program. This was totally confidential - only the counsellor, I and Calvin knew. Shortly thereafter, I got transferred to another facility in another city.

Two years later, I happened to be back in the factory, and ran into Calvin in a hallway. We shook hands, exchanged greetings and he said, beaming,

"I want to thank you. I can read."

Thanks to my job, I saw a dozen or so countries, got some patents, got to be an expert on something, led some priority one corporate projects and made a decent living, but getting Calvin to read was the best thing I did in my career.

Greatest achievement ? ... Children? - Nope (none that I'm aware of). Successful marriage of many years? - Nope (too many divorces). Great career - Nope (OK, but nothing special). Maybe that handgun grip thing ....... OR ....... Hold it .... I've got it !! Staying out of jail .... Well, .... except for that 2 hour stint until my buddy showed up with bail money back in '69. According to where my elementary school principal told my parents I would end up ..... Staying out of jail is definitely my greatest achievement!

No kids, so I guess it would have to be my career. I became recognized as an expert in my field, doing a lot of interesting stuff, with travel to some odd places in some unusual airplanes.

Without a doubt my son and daughter. Both went to college have good jobs, and I now have 7 grands!!!

I dunno....don't think about it much. Maybe saving a couple lives. Ran some programs as a safety guy that got some folks off their drug habits. Helped a bunch of folks when I was a cop.

I just hope I've done some good on balance. Never know for sure, but maybe.

375hh1973 said:

And once I saw a blimp.

Click to expand...

Several years ago, The Ohio State football team played Notre Dame for only the third time. It was such a big deal that Goodyear sent the entire fleet of 4 blimps top provide top coverage of the game. They came in over my property from the Northwest at 500 feet in altitude, in a WWI Zeplin bombing formation! After the game they scattered to the wind, except one went about 5 miles North of my house and practiced "Proposing", (just going up and down) for an hour plus!

I consider this one of the greatest aviation days of my life!

(On 9/11/01, I saw Air Force One, with a two-fighter escort, flying back to Washington DC! The Strength and Hope it instilled in my heart make that moment my #1 Aviation Moment)

Ivan