Belated greetings for the New Year! The Walton clan wish you and yours the best for 2020. You may or may not know but 2020 is known as a Leap Year and it brings back some wonderful memories from our past.
Let me explain. Way back in time, Judy and I had just started dating seriously when along came our first New Years Eve as a couple. The year was 1960! A Leap Year!
Tradition had it that a woman could propose marriage to a man during Leap Year. As the clock struck the magic hour of midnight some 64 years ago, upon receiving my midnight kiss, Judy whispered in my ear asking if I would marry her. Wow! Happy New Year!
Completely taken back by her brashness I knew it would take time for me to consider her proposal and the repercussions of such forwardness! It took almost ten seconds for me to consider my answer. Being a shy type I answered quietly in the positive and here I am more than sixty years later still wondering what happened.
It’s 2020 and we are still anticipating our future together.
So much has happened since 1960. Two kids, umpteen grandkids, many homes, occupational changes and a range of experiences from travelling the world to dealing with intermittent health problems but we are still here and hopefully contributing to our family and to society.
Judy and I may not be as active as in the past but we do keep involved as we try to look at the bright side of life. Sometimes it gets difficult when our friends and acquaintances from over the years are quietly disappearing from our lives. One can’t dwell on our losses at this point but we remain grateful for the wonderful experiences we are still encountering as we head into this new era.
We may have lost old friends but we will meet again and in the meantime we have a wealth of memories along with our family and friends that remain part of our lives.
One of my few regrets is my lack of stamina as I age. I really have had to slow down physically as has my bride. I noticed this particularly this year when I realized that golfing without a cart was no longer part of the routine. Doing more than one major thing a day was enough. Golfing and cutting the grass has become a two-day event rather than a one-day effort. Our older readers understand the dilemma.
Enough of this! Judy and I appreciate the time we have, our family and friends. We are grateful for the many years of joy we have had and my only hope is that when she reads this little story she will be happy enough to ask me to get married again since it is a Leap Year.
Reflecting on a wonderful past and anticipating an even better future for all, Kent Walton can be reached at [email protected].
