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At our reunion 5 or so years ago, I had a great time contacting lots of the old dudes we knew from the late 50's and early 60's. It was a great time in all our lives. Since that reunion, Margaret and I have both retired and now live on Portage Lake in Onekama, Michigan just north of Manistee in Northwest Michigan. We're just 50 miles south of Traverse City and live on the best kept secret in Michigan.

I sold my business to my two sons and daughter (who's a pharmacist also). Son's John and Jeff run the business side of the enterprise and I now have absolutely nothing to do with it except that I own a couple of the buildings and they pay me rent. I thought I'd miss it and sometimes I do, but all the new things we do take up much my time and with every day, I miss it less. We travel at least 1-2 major trips a year. We both fly fish and I do fishing of almost any kind including salmon on my boat out in Lake Michigan. I bought some farm and wooded acreage just 5 miles from our home here on the lake and we plan to do a little garden farming along with hunting and running around with my 4 wheeler. We also have a motorhome where we travel around with some of our 8 grandchildren to places around Michigan and the mid-west. Our kids all live and work in Clare where we maintain an apartment to visit them from time to time.

One of the cool things I've had fun with is organizing a group of guys in similar situation to me..... We call ourselves the "ROMEO'S" which stands for "Retired Old Men Eating Out". Once a month we get together (someone picks a different restaurant each month) and just eat out. We've been semi-organized for almost two years now and have about 35-40 guys with about 25 showing up each "gathering". We call it "gathering" rather than meetings because we don't want it to be too much like a club. We have no attendance, no dues, no goals or mission statements, no lofty goals, no rules and especially "NO WIMMEN"! We don't talk business, careers, past deeds or duties, or résumé's or academic accomplishments. We just talk "guy talk" and everybody loves it. Most are guys just like me in that they retired (most comfortable economically) and moved here from some other area of Michigan or the Midwest. We never talk about what we used to do and no one cares. We just have fun.

Anyway, that's what Margaret and I do now. We are enjoying this part of our life more than anytime thus far. We thank God for good health and many other things. I think of our college days with great memories of a time when we were all growing up and learning from each other. Thanks for your help and thanks for the memories.