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John Grindrod: For me, what once mattered, fashion

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Most know that when it comes to aging, much changes. Not only do we know this when we look at old photos of our wrinkle-free visages but we also know it when we debate whether a trip up a staircase at home is really all that necessary. Beyond the physical changes, at least for me, there are also changes in my thought processes as far as my points of emphases.

John Grindrod: The spirit is willing; the body is unable

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Had you told me when I was a teen that someday I’d be 72 years old, I’d have been very skeptical. Even in my teens, I knew enough about my family history to realize that while my maternal and paternal ancestors may have been known for a variety of things, one of those would certainly not have been longevity. Of my four grandparents, one died before I was born, another, before I was 2 and a third when I was 6. As for my parents, well, I’ve outlived both, my father by 14 and my mom by two years.

John Grindrod: For the Campbells, family history matters

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When I first received the book that siblings Scott Campbell and his sister Tracey Campbell Frederick got to print with a huge assist from Scott’s daughter Amy, who typed the manuscript, I thought there was a mistake on the cover of From the South Pacific to the New River, a West Virginia Love Story. Scott had told me it was about his father, John Emerson Campbell, and his Navy experiences aboard the USS Taussig during World War II, and I assumed it to be a third-person account, co-written by Scott and Tracey.

John Grindrod: Fathers and unbridled birthing joy

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While it’s the moms who obviously do the heavy lifting when it comes to bringing a baby into this world, that doesn’t mean that the dads can’t experience their own euphoria when it comes to the promise of new life. As for the way they express their joy, well, that can come in a variety of ways, from the predictable and clichéd to the downright larcenous.

John Grindrod: Frequent sightings spawn frequent memories

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Surely, I feel blessed, at 72, to be well enough and motivated enough to work. While it does mystify some of my retired friends that seem to find no trouble filling up their days with daily golf, trips to the Y and stops at the Beer Barrel, truth be told, one of my greatest mortal fears is how I would fill my days if I didn’t work. Fortunately for me, the world in which we live seems to embrace the reliability and experience that senior workers provide, especially after COVID, when so many of those who used to work found so many other things to do rather than work.

John Grindrod: The changing face of solicitations

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During the course of a typical week, it’s not unusual for me to receive 15 to 20 solicitations. Since I’ve tried to support the causes about which I’ve researched to ensure most of what’s donated goes to the cause and not to inflated salaries of administrators and about which I care, I’m pretty sure my name has been passed around to other organizations, which may explain the high volume.

John Grindrod: In case you missed it, they did too

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Looking back at some of the odder small stories that streaked across the summer sky, there is one, to be honest, I almost missed myself were it not for a friend of mine, Harry Johnson, who filled me in on a game-show moment while he and I were watching Lima’s boys of summer, our Locos, play a mid-July game.

John Grindrod: From childhood invisible friends to senior solo talk

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In the past few months, I was reminded of something from my very distant Chicago past. The reason those memories have resurfaced almost 70 years later is because of something my niece Jessie told me. Having heard much of the family lore surrounding my upbringing over the years from her mom and my sis, Joanie, Jessie was aware that the person she’s always referred to as Uncle Bubby during his first few years growing up in the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn had a couple of invisible friends. In a neighborhood somewhat lacking in kids my age, my two pals provided sounding boards for some of my earliest chatter.

John Grindrod: Among all paradoxes, one truly stands out

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As I’ve told you before, if you’ve been with me for a while, my teaching days are still with me despite the fact that this fall marks the 19th school year that commenced without my standing in front of students. As I wrestled with the decision back in the spring of 2005 as to whether to bring to a close that chapter of my working life, it was a couple of my friends who intimated that it was probably the right move if the thought didn’t dissipate after, perhaps, a bad day or two.

John Grindrod: Dave Vastano and Lima’s law enforcement Rushmore

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As we move into another season’s homestretch, given the wistfulness of this increasingly sentimental septuagenarian, this is about the time I begin to inventory the departing season’s events, both those I consider positive and those anything but. As for the latter, those items often involve those folks who’ve impacted the lives of so many whose linear lines often abruptly came to an end.