Retirement.

@mopar-mr 

Enjoy 🙏🙌

@chris 

Leave it to you Chris 🤣🙌😂

@geoff-jowett 

We all gotta admire you 👍 💪

@100ford2003 thank you Steve.

Just add one more if I may. Along with the hands on volunteers we have an amazing group of women in the 'background' Highly skilled crafters, making toys, blankets, shawls etc. One womans mother is an Alzheimer's patient in her 90s, who is in full time care. She sends her mother pictures of dolls and toys and in turn mum creates these amazing knitted creations. Here's a few of the recent dolls. They are sold in out auxiliary shop and go like hot cakes. Heres a person of such advanced age and serious medical condition being so incredibly skilled and wonderfully productive.

@geoff-jowett Bless you Geoff and I'm proud to be a part of this group of people and our hobby which we share.

@perrone1 +1. I enjoy your daily contributions Hollis.

@100ford2003 Thank you Steve. As I look back over my life, I would have never considered the love of cars as being so important a part of what makes me tick. While the cars have always been a fun hobby, God, family, friends and Gods creatures are far more important but without the cars we wouldn't have had the chance to know each other.

@geoff-jowett 

GOD Bless them 🙏😇

I started the same way several others did, mowing lawns and washing cars at 11. I got a job at the local Woolworth's at 15 (I had to fib about my age), then went to the A&P at 16. I managed at a jeans and t-shirt store at 19. I quit school at 20 and started a retail career. After running several fast food stores, I sold boats and campers for 3 years, then got a position selling cars. Once I became a manager, things progressed from there. I ran five different dealerships until I got a call to ministry at 50. I've been a pastor for 24 years and turned 74 last month. Next year I will take a step back, but I'll stay engaged. I'm on the boards of several ministries and am the Virginia state chaplain for the Sons of the American Revolution. They've asked me to consider being the national chaplain next year. I'm not ready to retire, but I am looking forward to a somewhat slower pace. Kelly and I would like to travel more. I've been blessed with an amazing wife, a rewarding career, and the opportunity to minister to people in their best and hardest moments. I am content. I love cars, this hobby, and the people I encounter.

@jkuvakas 

No one could ever wish for more than that! Amen and God Bless!!   

Amazing stories guys, I thoroughly enjoyed reading them all. It amazes me how we and others touch so many other lives and how those lives touch us. Thanks for sharing. You guys are absolutely amazing. I love this place.💯😊

I took early retirement at 58. It got to the point where my Dad needed 24 hour care.

There are many experiences which can shape a life and I have been fortunate to have as much good as not-so-good come into the picture.  At 15 I went to live with a teacher, who unfortunately died a few months later, but she made a big impact on my life.  I learned I had to take care of myself and after recuperating from an accident the previous summer, at 19 I swept the floors of a small bar so the owner would teach me the trade of bartending.  It was a trade that served very well, financially, in three states, into my early twenties, when I moved into hotel management.  The hours required broke my young marriage, but I am fortunate to still count her as my friend.  We were just too young to be married and I decided if that one didn't work I wouldn't do it again.  It was in my capacity of management that I was invited to meet Alexis Lichine -  one of the 'BIG 5' in the wine industry at the time - at a small dinner party and there are several interesting anecdotes related to this dinner, but this isn't my autobiography. 

In California, I managed to get a marketing certificate, which is the 'business' half of a two year degree and I continued my studies right up to 2000, at several colleges and universities.  Unfortunately, work has always interfered with education, but I still managed to get as much under my belt as I could.  In my thirties, I started a small business which afforded me the opportunity to see 'inside' the lives of actors and other public figures, which included invitations to events such as the Thalian's Ball in Los Angeles, where I dined with Estelle Getty and Morey Amsterdam - both of whom made it very difficult to consume food or alcohol.  The invite had come from Ruta Lee, who later that year joined me and several friends at a dinner honoring Jesse Jackson.  Ruta owned a winery in the Napa Valley and as a surprise I had a case of her wine sent down and when I opened a bottle to pour for her a film crew came to our table and Ruta whispered: 'Make sure they get the label in the shot!'  I met many other actors/actresses and most of them were interesting people, with the exception of M'sieur Cage, whom I met at a girlfriend's apartment, when I was picking her up for dinner.  As a footnote, the girl he came to see ended up in a film about Jim Morrison, and you might have seen her in an elevator scene.  It was also during this period of my life that I came to know Martha Raye, and the remarkable Christine Jorgensen, two extraordinary women.

I was also invited to chaperone a matron of Dallas/Fort Worth society for the Cattleman's Ball, an event she referred to as a 'hoot.'  It was interesting to me that among the extraordinary wealth represented in that room, by the women as well as the men, they were 'real' folk, for the most part.  They spoke openly and said what was on their mind, much like the woman I had married just a few years earlier.  I won't share how I was greeted upon my arrival, but I will say it was nothing short of unexpected and rather humorous. 

There are other parts to my past, but I guess the most important aspect of one's life is growth.  Did I mature well?  Did I learn from my mistakes?  Did I become a better person in spite of my challenges?  From my perspective I feel I have made great strides in these areas, but humility suggests it would be more appropriate for others who have known me to determine  whether or not I am an 'improved' version of myself. 

@gdh 

...but this isn't my autobiography. 

If you DO write one  -  I'll read it cover to cover!

Posted by: @gdh

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"I was also invited to chaperone a matron of Dallas/Fort Worth society for the Cattleman's Ball."

I've heard of this - lucky you!  👍 👍