It's been a while

I've been working, not loafing, but whatever the excuse it has been a week since my last venture into the wonderful world of blogging. That blog seven days ago brought a comment from Stag, who had died some time prior to writing it. If you want to get technical about it he may not really have been dead but after being stung by a bee he was lying there with his heart as quiet as a mouse until the medics arrived.
It made sense that he had faded away like old soldiers are supposed to do because he had been told that a tech sergeant would do just that a year after retiring. He's back among us, though, and quite naturally his story reminded me of something. When you get to be my age everything reminds you of something.

It was just after World War II ended in Europe when a bunch of us were herded into a room where a solemn-faced doctor awaited. He told us everyone who had been in infantry combat for any length of time could deduct 15 years from their life expectancy of 72. Aside from the doc, all of us in the room had been in infantry combat for some length of time. Stress, strain, living under adverse conditions and existing on K-rations were responsible, he said.

I wondered who had come to this ridiculous conclusion, of course, but didn't laugh aloud. Well, just a little, maybe. Anyway, being 19 at the time, 57 seemed a long way off.

I don't believe I ever gave that nonsense another thought until one day when I was 57 and hard at work in the newsroom the wire editor dropped a tearsheet on my desk and said, "This might interest you. I'm not running it."
I doubt if any newspaper in the country ran it because it was a boring story saying the figure had been reduced from 15 years to eight. That meant instead of dropping dead on the spot I was safe until I hit 64.

Time passed until one day it dawned on me that I was a few years past 64. Then a little more time went by and my only view of 72 was in the rearview mirror. Now I'm 10 years past my final sell-by date and I'm still going strong. Well, I'm still going but maybe not too strong.

So what does all this prove? Not a damn thing.

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