Will there be a Life to Come?

.....I know that Joel and Barbara had gone to see a B-24 Liberator & I wonder if it was the same as the one Rhoda and I went to see at the Boca Airport (where Robin lands & takes off when she comes here).  I think the name on the plane was "Witchcraft" or something like that.  There was also a B-17 and a P-51 Mustang.  I'm pretty sure the the bombers were the same that JR & Barb went on.  We got there late afternoon so there was no big crowd.  People were being charged $12 to get to see them, and if you wanted a ride, it was only $425.  Just think--I flew on a B-24 for two years for free!  Because I'm a vet, we were not charged to get in.  Rho climbed a small ladder and got inside the B-24 and she got a first hand look at my WWII main venue.  I did not venture to follow her.  


.....Now, I must continue to review my years in retirement in Life #7.  I certainly don't want readers to be "confused" about which life was which.  I'm doing the best that I can at trying to recall some of the events which are not in my memoirs and this attempt is not scientific.  One life sometimes ran into another life.  I thought about it and to clarify, I will adjust them a bit for your and my better understanding...although keep in mind that I am doing this review mostly for my own benefit...I want to see where I've been and try to learn where I'm going--although I have a pretty good idea about that.  Let's just consider for the sake of easy chronology that Life #1 was my childhood in Long Branch until I was nine.  Life #2 would then be my growing up in Fort Apache, ergo The Bronx.  Life #3 would be my experiences in WWII.  #4 would be my college days--(which I said was a life of its own).  It came within what I will now call, for the sake of easy reading,  Life #5--my marriage and my raising a family and my teaching career.  Life #6 would then become my single years (after my ex kidnapped herself) and my trip around the world.  And then Life #7 when I met and married Rhoda and retired to Florida.


.....Besides teaching poetry and Shakespeare to the seniors in my community, one day I read in the Huntington Lakes' newsletter that the Theater Arts club was going to produce "HMS Pinafore", the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.  One of my early goals was to become an actor--but marriage and kids vetoed that idea...until I auditioned and won the lead role as Sir Joseph Porter, and the show ran four nights in 1992 in our 600 seat theater.  Eventually, my new career landed me leading roles in "The Mikado" (1993) as Koko; as Prez in "Pajama Game" (1994); Captain Andy in "Showboat" (1995); "The Music Man" as Harold Hill (1996); as Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof" (1997); "Pirates of Penzance" as Major General Stanley which I also directed; and "My Fair Lady" as Henry Higgins (2007).  I also directed that one and Rhoda & Sally Forman did a terrific job as Producers.  Then age, illness, & debilitating accidents to my body caught up with me, and my career as a thespian came to an end.  However, I was not finished trying to achieve all my goals; I became computer literate and since I always wanted to be an author, I started to write my "Memoirs of a Tail Gunner" which was published in 2007.  But I was not finished writing; I started a "blog", chose a persona as the Red Baron von Zorro, (Check me out in the photo) and I've been working on the blog--which really has served as a journal of my life for the past five years, reaching over 3000 pages--more than Tolstoy's "War & Peace".  

So, I have finally, at the age of 88 become a famous unknown author!  Have I achieved "greatness"?  Now, it doesn't really matter; I am what I am--and what is, is.


....