Time flies!

[GB]

As August comes to a crashing completion, it just dawned on me that 50 years ago on Aug.4 at 1500 hrs. I pinned on my first Police Badge and took an oath to protect the citizens of a small town in South Dakota. I wish I could say that I lasted long enough to retire but the truth is I just lasted long enough to get tired, two other small Depts. and 13 years later. As any of you know that worked small towns, local politics is a grind. The Dept. furnished pants, shirts, sap gloves and a baton. Everything else was on me. And all of this for the princely sum of $2.99 cents per hour! GB

 

[lihpster]

Thank you for your (severely underpaid) service to your community. Just to provide context, I started working just 10 years later for the minimum wage of $3.35/ hour. But I was washing dishes in a pizza place. You'd have had to pay me a bit more to potentially get shot at.
I hope you got something other than money out of your career.

 

[Lonestar57]

I've been retired from my agency for 15-years coming up in a few months which is unbelievable to me. Feels like I walked out the door for the last time yesterday. Time has truly gone by in light-speed.

 

[Oldengineer]

It's said that time seems to go by much faster as we age. I suspect that this is because we are much less active. There are far fewer events to occupy our consciousness. I take this as a mandate to avoid the recliner and TV remote and stay active....., even when my 80 year old body yells at me. I'm not sure if I've slowed down the final act. I hope so.

Tom H.

 

[jscheck]

I retired from my agency in 2021. I go in once in a great while and see some friends. I try not to stay long and get in the way. I miss some aspects of my job a lot (and some people not much!)

 

[olfart]

I retired after 19 years with my agency in 2007, but I still maintain contact. I go back to qualify every year for LEOSA, but I see fewer and fewer familiar faces. Also have to go back every 4 years and get a new ID card. At least the sheriff is an old friend. Not sure what's going to happen when he retires.

 

[Spajohn]

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."

 

[duke2002]

Enjoy retirement. I hit 28 yrs next month. 4 to go.

 

[duke2002]

Rather hope your enjoing your retirement lol! Been a long day!

 

[Onomea]

It's said that time seems to go by much faster as we age. I suspect that this is because we are much less active. There are far fewer events to occupy our consciousness....

I think it's because we have more events, a lifetime's worth, to occupy our consciousness.

When we were twenty, twenty was a lifetime. It seemed, to us then, that we'd been around for a long time. Indeed we had been around as long as we could remember.

Now, 20 years ago, is just a few years ago in a much longer life chock full of events.

 

[lihpster]

I remember being 12 years old when the teacher pointed out that the year 2000 was only 20 years away. I remember thinking I would never see it. Seemed to be forever. We're now farther away from the year 2000 than we were back then. I'd give anything to go back.

 

[mckenney99]

I entered the Academy May 5, 1980 and graduated September 26, 1980. Retired July 21, 2006. I recently celebrated my 19th anniversary of my retirement from duty and still miss the work and service to the public, although I still carry some of it in my soul & nightmares. My ultimate goal is to live long enough in retirement to at least equal the time I spent on the job. I seldom see my fellow coworker retirees, as most are older than I am and I was the lone Trooper of my age group. We usually get together to do our yearly LEOSA qualification but that is about it. I've been back to the post where I spent my entire career less than 6 times in 19 years as there has been a complete turnover of staff and operations have changed where Troopers apparently come on post infrequently.

 

[WCCPHD]

I started working for the State of North Carolina in 1979 (first full-time law enforcement job) for the princely sun of $5.13 per hour or $9864 per year. When I broke $10K I thought I had arrived.

 

[olfart]

I think it's because we have more events, a lifetime's worth, to occupy our consciousness.

When we were twenty, twenty was a lifetime. It seemed, to us then, that we'd been around for a long time. Indeed we had been around as long as we could remember.

Now, 20 years ago, is just a few years ago in a much longer life chock full of events.

I once read a study that said our concept of time is based on our age (experience). To a 6-yr-old, a year is 1/6 of his life and seems almost like forever. As we age, that perception shifts with the fact that at 80, a year is only 1/80th of my life, or a very small slice of time by comparison. Makes sense to me.

 

[Golddollar]

I've been retired for almost 10 years now. It sure doesn't seem like it has been that long.

Someone here really put the passage of my life in focus. For the last 3 years I have gone back to my law school, where I actually graduated on my birthday (talk about getting a monumental birthday present). I had started a thread about how I had gone back to the law school to celebrate the dual occasions of my birthday and graduation. In one of the posts to my thread it was set forth that in two years I would celebrate 1/2 century from graduation and 3/4 century of life.

 

[The Big D]

Thread just reminded me May 11, 2025, marked fifty (50!) years since I was sworn in. Was making $11600./year. Thought I was rich!

Will be retired for twenty (20!) years on November 12.

Where did all that time go?

Be safe!

 

[smitholdtimer]

Just for comparison, my first job out of the military was with the local power utility co. I started as a lab trainee for $1.98/hour, worked about 6 months and was called to the superintendent's office, advised that I was to get a raise, as I left his office I was making $1.98 1/2 /per hour. Glad times have changed.......... BUT we were willing to work to earn out income back then. This was in 1965