Good Morning,
It was 66 years ago today on a Tuesday in Portland, Oregon that I first opened my eyes to this amazing new world. While my interests were more focused on instinctive things like mother’s milk and trying to deal with the freedoms, sights and sounds of this world of light and air outside of the womb, much more was going on around me, the comprehension of which, would take me many years to understand.
You see, World War II was coming to and end and Nazi Germany was being sliced and diced like so much cheese by the French, British, United States and the Soviets. About a month earlier Japan had succumb to the first use of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” by any nation, with the dropping of the atomic bombs, “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima and “Fat Man” on Nagasaki. Now General Douglas MacArthur was in Japan to enforce the “terms of surrender” and change the culture of Japan forever.
There was much jubilation as the war was coming to an end and many of the 8 million US Army troops would be coming home, spawning the “Baby Boomers” that just followed my “War Baby” generation. Ok…ok, so I wasn’t a “War Baby” in the true definition, but I was born during that time. We were the harbingers of the “Social Services Crisis” that is now being wrought by the numbers of “Baby Boomers” retiring.
Interesting that some in the Catholic Church found a way to blame abortion for the crisis of lowering the population contributing to the social money pool. Now I am not a economics professor, but I’m pretty sure that most of those births would have been to mothers without the normal “family” support (like participating fathers) and therefore would have ended up be a burden on society as well. But that is just my opinion, oh and that of John Donohue and Steve Levitt who proposed their hypothesis concerning unwanted pregnancies and how abortion has affected the crime rate in America. But, I wander… and besides, as expected, there are many rebuttals to their hypothesis as well.
As is typical, I have wandered off of my main theme here. Anyway, being born when I was and by the way, not only do I feel fortunate for being born, but also for the parents I had and the times in this world that I have been able to experience so many historical and personal events. There are so many I could name, but for just a few like, Television, Rock n’ Roll, Vietnam, Assignation of a President, First Marriage, Birth of a Daughter, 
Landing of a Man on the Moon, Birth of a Son, Second Marriage, Birth of Second Son, Move to Oregon, Death of Fathers, Birth of Grandson, Death of Mothers, Several Changes in Jobs, Birth of Grand Daughter, Move to Arizona, Business Ventures, Birth of Granddaughter, IPOD and so many others ad nauseam. I guess what I am saying is, that I have enjoyed being alive these 66 year and experiencing the “things of life” here on earth.
I am also grateful for the things I have, the close family and friends that have been the most important part of my life along the way and however long this road may be, I must say, it has been quite a trip.
So today, I celebrate these “things of life” and the blessings I have been given.
Love, Dad