Feeling My Age

The past week was a reminder of getting older or maybe it was a movie or book I wandered into. It started at the Memorial Day parade in Westminster.

I was shooting for Westminster Patch and before the event started I was wondering how many of the parades have I attended. I figured it was around 53 or 54, which wasn't too bad for an event that was marking it's 144th celebration.

Anyways, I am shooting pictures when I hear a voice say, "George, how are you?" It was Sgt. Maj. Melvin Hoffman, a Westminster High School classmate. Our class is planning our 40th reunion this summer.

Then it hit me, Melvin was the keynote speaker for the exercises in the cemetery. That's for the older veterans in the county. Wait a minute we are older. We are now the people we listened to after the parade. This was heavy on my mind as I drove to Sykesville for another Memorial Day event. During the week, Becca, Shirley and me were busy moving mulch and mowing the yard.

We have three birdhouses full of birds. We got to watching one of the houses, as the little ones were making a lot of noise. We took a break and was able to watch them take flight for the first time, as they left the nest. Becca had mentioned how sad to watch them leave home and the parents were off looking for food. Food  for their babies that wouldn't be there when they returned. Getting older and leaving home.

Next was the annual fire muster Saturday for the Westminster Patch site again. I am watching the parade and when I start to realize I had to shoot a few of the equipment in action and in the case of the two from Westminster, I sat on as a little kid. My grandmother lived next to the firehouse and my Uncle Floyd Gamber was a fireman.

The fire house seemed to be Uncle Floyd's second home and I have a few memories of our time together when I was little. He would take me down to the fire house and let me sit and ring the bell on the Amercian LaFrance trucks and there they were in the parade. Then the Pleasant Valley's engine went by and now I was really feeling older.

Besides seeing the engine in action, I saw it go by the house on Murkle Road  many times answering calls in the Pleasant Valley area. At the muster, I found out Mike Stewart, who owns the engine with his family as grandchildren. Put that together with seeing units from Manchester, Reese, Sykesville, Pleasant Valley and Westminster and I was feeling my age. If they were antiques, what does that make me.

I also shot Century, Liberty and South Carroll graduations this week for Eldersburg Patch and got to see the students start a new chapter in their lives.