Post by radina on Feb 12, 2008 18:39:35 GMT -5
3900 Saturdays
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
garage 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 whomever 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. It's too bad you missed your daughter's
"dance recital" he continued. "Let me tell you something that
has helped me keep 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 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's 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 that 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 This is a 75 Year
old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!" "GOD BLESS"
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. And hey, can we stop at
a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles. Life's way to short
A friend sent this to me, so I to you, my friend.
And so, as one smart bear once said..
"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you." - Winnie the Pooh.
Pass this on to all of your FRIENDS, even if it means
sending it to the person that sent it to you.
And if you receive this e-mail many times from many
different people, it only means that you have many FRIENDS.
And if you get it but once, do not be discouraged for you will know that you have at least one good friend ..
And that would be ME.
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
garage 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 whomever 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. It's too bad you missed your daughter's
"dance recital" he continued. "Let me tell you something that
has helped me keep 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 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's 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 that 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 This is a 75 Year
old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!" "GOD BLESS"
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. And hey, can we stop at
a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles. Life's way to short
A friend sent this to me, so I to you, my friend.
And so, as one smart bear once said..
"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you." - Winnie the Pooh.
Pass this on to all of your FRIENDS, even if it means
sending it to the person that sent it to you.
And if you receive this e-mail many times from many
different people, it only means that you have many FRIENDS.
And if you get it but once, do not be discouraged for you will know that you have at least one good friend ..
And that would be ME.