SCC Luncheon

My wife and I bounded into Morgan’s Steakhouse around 12:03 p.m. to meet up with some of our old work friends and their families.  The engineers who ran the Spartus Computer Center back in the eighties and nineties were the primary participants.  We had all retired by now and were trying to enjoy our lives after work.  Jimmy J., who was the master of ceremonies, got the party rolling by asking each participant to briefly state how they were enjoying retirement and how they were currently occupying their time.

As everyone took turns talking about their current and past lives, a recurring theme for many was that they stayed retired for a few weeks or a few months, but then went back to work at another job in order defeat the boredom of the day or to make some extra cash for luxuries and necessities that the retirement pension didn’t quite cover.  However, all of us didn’t succumb to that temptation.  I’d say that forty percent of us quit thinking about the job the day we retired and never once thought about another job.  We tended to sharpen our focus on more mundane aspects of life, like improving our golf scores or beating out our buddies for the biggest fish catch of the day.

Of course, there were some sad stories that were told.  One person had lost his wife to cancer over the last year.  That news hit all of us hard.  It just tends to remind us that we only borrow a few days of consciousness and awareness before we retreat back into another dimension that is beckoning for some, frightening for others, but, in reality, undeterminable in the absolute sense for everyone.  But, today, after a few seconds of contemplation, we quickly returned to the joy of the present and embraced the opportunity to enjoy old friends and fellow workers while we could.

When my turn came to sum up my retirement years, I talked only about my new grandson and my latest golf scores which were improving.  I quickly realized that I had no great plans to continue to strive or to achieve in any sense.  For me, I had that opportunity while I was working.  My achievements were ordinary, but I am still proud of what I accomplished while working.  I guess that I choose to sugar coat the past to make it palatable enough to accept and to treat the negatives as life experiences from which I learned valuable lessons, rather than reasons to look back with any conscious level of sadness, anger or remorse.

As is usually the case, after a while, we all settled down and started conversations with those who were within easy talking distance.  I was lucky to have sat down with Harry, who was one of my old golf buddies and somebody who could keep a conversation light and enjoyable.  Somehow, the chatting turned to his grandson, who was now a sophomore in high school.  After a long soliloquy about the injustice of parents having to pay for their kids to play high school sports, he started talking about the potential that he saw in his grandson.  He had the size to become a lineman on either side of the ball.  He weighed in at two hundred eighty five pounds and was six feet three inches tall.  I was impressed with those numbers.  One cannot think about playing sports at the college or pro levels without having specific physical traits which fall within the acceptable range.  You’re just not going to get the opportunity to play right guard for Alabama if you are five foot eleven and one hundred eighty pounds.

But, Harry was worried about his grandson’s height.  Six foot six or seven might be the lower bound for Alabama.  Therefore, he might have to accept a scholarship with a mid-tier school like Maryland or Syracuse.

Anyway, we spent an hour discussing our perceived notions about the potential for his grandson in the athletic arena.  It was an enjoyable and entertaining conversation for several of us at our table.  But, what I liked about the conversation was the friendly and casual atmosphere that the subject created.  It was a time well spent for me.

But, too soon, the waitress came around with the bill and we reluctantly paid up and quickly departed back to our regular lives while also hoping that we would have the opportunity to see some of these same characters a year from now.  More stories will be spun, more people will be suddenly struck with the realities of life, but we will also be able to enjoy a simple and casual conversation about some small, but important, aspects of our lives.

I look forward to next year.