Got to share this with you

1) Saturday Mornings/Marbles

Bill Thomas

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday
mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that
comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's
the unbounded joy of not having to be at work.
Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday
morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the
basement shack with a steaming cup of coffee
in one hand and the morning paper in the other.
What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned
into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you
from time to time. Let me tell you about it.

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the
band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday
morning swap net.

Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap,
with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You
know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the
broadcasting business. He was telling whoever he was
talking with something about "a thousand marbles."

I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he
had to say.

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with
your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame
you have to be away from home and your family so
much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have
to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends
meet. Too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital."

He continued, "Let me tell you something Tom,
something that has helped me keep a good perspective
on my own priorities."
And that's when he began to
explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little
arithmetic. The average person lives about
seventy-five years. I know, some live more
and some live less, but on average, folks
live about seventy-five years."

"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up
with 3900 which is the number of Saturdays that
the average person has in their entire lifetime.
Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the
important part."

"It took me until I was fifty-five years old to
think about all this in any detail," he went on,
"and by that time I had lived through over
twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to
thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I
only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy."

"So I went to a toy store and bought every single
marble they had. I ended up having to visit three
toy stores to round-up 1000 marbles. I took them
home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic
container right here in the shack next to my gear.
Every Saturday since then, I have taken one
marble out and thrown it away."

"I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I
focused more on the really important things in life.
There is nothing like watching your time here on
this earth run out to help get your priorities
straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I
sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for
breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out
of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday
then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing
we can all use is a little more time."

"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend
more time with your family, and I hope to meet you
again here on the band. 75 year Old Man, this is
K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when
this fellow signed off.

I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had
planned to work on the antenna that morning,
and then I was going to meet up with a few hams
to work on the next club newsletter. Instead, I went
upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon
honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."

"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile.
"Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time
since we spent a Saturday together with the kids."

Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out?
I need to buy some marbles."

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AND MAY ALL YOUR SATURDAYS BE SPECIAL!!!!!!!!!
Work like you don't need the money...
Love like you've never been hurt...
Dance like nobody's watching...
Sing like nobody can hear you

Author Unknown