3900 Saturday Mornings_*

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

theunbounded 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
ofcoffee 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 whom-ever 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
lifetimeNow, 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
beseventy-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_ _is_ _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!"

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
ata toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.

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.