WHAT AM I DOING HERE?
Let me introduce myself and tell you why I’m here.
To begin with my name is Warren and I live in Hilton Head, SC. I am seventy eight years old, married and go to work everyday at my floor covering business. I am fairly active on the internet with emails, texts, and Facebook.
A few weeks ago I was contacted by a long lost high school and football pal. We hadn’t seen each other for sixty one years. Can you believe sixty one freakin years? Over time I had made several attempts to communicate with Brian through FB but only made contact once and never heard from him again until recently. I asked him how and why he found me and he said one of our mutual friends suggested that he make the attempt. I suppose fate had something to do with it. We chatted back and forth on the internet several times over the next couple of days bringing each other up to date and we exchanged the usual phone numbers and addresses. A day or so later I received a call from Brian.
We bullshitted for over an hour and not surprisingly all time had evaporated and we were back in the zone like it was yesterday. We spoke about family, divorces, careers, woman, college, sports, and old friends. Who died and who survived. Everything one would have expected. In the course of the conversation Brian he told me he was writing short stories and had been for sometime. He said he didn’t think he was very good at it but he enjoyed doing it a great deal and he had a number of people reading his work. I thought to myself how interesting it was that he of all people would have such an engaging hobby. He was never known to be a cerebral type of guy.
Funny thing though I at one time had tried my hand at writing a book but upon finishing the first chapter I gave it up. Some of the topics I was writing about would have been so incriminating I would have been sued or found myself committed or worse. Maybe shot by a jealous husband or boyfriend.
Interestingly I was never known as a brain trust so I thought if Brian could do it, so could I.
I asked him to tell me more about this writing thing and he encouraged me to investigate Medium.com. Further he told me that writing wasn’t difficult and he had a lot of fun doing it. My brain was in full gear. I thought this might be what I was looking for being bored most of the time regardless of my participation at work. So I did my research and here I am, writing. I have lots of stories to tell and a lot to say.
I’m known as a man of vast experience involving many topics and a good bit of wisdom. I’m an old timer and I enjoy helping and teaching others. Sometimes I get carried away a bit but in the main I find people listen to what I have to say. I’m often told that I should write a book.
By the way, I have a reading disability but I find if I try hard enough I can do it and I do. There’s a lesson right there. It is no different to me than watching a two hundred and fifty pound man run a marathon. Guess what, I did that too.
So here we are. I have written a few things on Medium. Stayed close with Brian and I’m discovering things about myself and enriching my life. Hopefully others are enjoying my writing a bit. I’m getting sincere encouragement and that is a good thing.
So now I’m always digging deep for subject matter for my next project. To me it seems more enjoyable to write about experiences and people I have intimate knowledge of than just making things up. My tales are of true experience with details as honestly told as possible from an old man’s memory. Sometimes I’m better than I was and the outcomes are better than were. Conversely outcomes could be worse than they were but I’ll always be better than I was, maybe. My hope is to deliver the point as best I can.
Most recently my thought for material was to write about as many people in my life that I have crossed paths with that had influence on my being today. I believe that all roads lead to where we are and these roads have been guided by people and events but mostly by people. Going forward I intend to write about as many colorful individuals I have encountered as possible but primarily the most influential.
Among them could be relatives, friends, enemies, old girl friends, celebrities, business associates past and present. Just about anybody who I have crossed paths with on my journey to where I am at the time of composition. Hopefully I will use good taste but with me one never knows. I’ll do my best. I’ll avoid incriminating secrets.
From time to time I intend to tell more stories of experiences I have had, my opinions and places I’ve been such as the Cobb County Correctional. This will be an interesting story I promise. One that should be told. I’ll get around to it one of these days when I feel inspired. In addition I’d like to write about some of my interests such as collecting landscapes of the ocean or shots of my home town, Asbury Park, NJ.
So, if you are interested in me and my creations please stay tuned. I’ll do my best.
