3900 Marbles: OFF TOPIC sorta

My Sis that "works a LOT" sent this to me. No, we don't know who wrote it, so we can't give proper credit.

Hugs

Butterfly

Subject: 3900 marbles

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

"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.

Reply to
Butterflywings
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This is awesome! And, it gives me an idea for my dh who is contemplating when to retire. I say now and he says a year from now. I think I will go buy some marbles.....I want him to see how many Saturdays there will be left to enjoy doing what he wants to do instead of work.......

Thank you for sharing..........

Laurie G. in CA

Reply to
Laurie G.

You're welcome.

Butterfly

Reply to
Butterflywings

So THAT'S where all my marbles went to! I knew I'd lost them somewhere!

Reply to
Kathy Applebaum

I wondered who would take the bait....it was just too tempting....

-- Jo in Scotland

Reply to
Johanna Gibson

My Mom gave my marbles away at some point. Sigh

Pati, gr> >

Reply to
Pati Cook

A friend was cleaning out her mother's house after her mom passed away, and found the big box of marbles she'd had as a child. She ran out of the house with the box, yelling excitedly to all of us "Here's my marbles! I thought I'd lost them, but here they are!" It took her a few minutes to figure out why we were all rolling on the ground with laughter. :)

Reply to
Kathy Applebaum

Reply to
Pat in Virginia

Thank for sending this in. I recall seeing this a couple of years ago.

My father recently took a life expectancy quiz. It said his was 77 yrs. He turns 90 in a couple of weeks, so he figures he still has his marbles ;)

G> My Sis that "works a LOT" sent this to me. No, we don't know who wrote it,

Reply to
Ginger in CA

I got a bag of marbles from my Mom on our wedding day. She thought I had 'lost mine'. And we're still together after 34 yrs (Sept) and 42 moves. Sometimes parents don't know it all.

I still enjoyed reading this tho. Butterfly

Reply to
Butterflywings

Too funny. Thanks Pat for keeping the post.

Butterfly

Reply to
Butterflywings

Reply to
Pat in Virginia

They never left MI...but we sure did :)

Butterfly

Reply to
Butterflywings

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