It is all relative.\u00a0 I am really not an \u201cold guy.\u201d\u00a0 Virginia, my mother-in-law lived to be 90.\u00a0 She often referred to my wife and I as babies.\u00a0 Store clerks sometimes regard me with the martyred patience reserved for alzheimer\u2019s patients.\u00a0 That\u2019s OK, I can only hear about 20% of what they are saying.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In my mind\u2019s eye I am about 24, at my physical peak; until I look in the mirror.\u00a0 I am aways shocked to see my Dad\u2019s reflection looking back at me as I brush my teeth.\u00a0 Terry, my wife, insists that we are middle aged.\u00a0 I wish.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The first insult came from AARP when I turned 50.\u00a0 They had the brass to offer me membership, for a price.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In my youth I was a Smokejumper.\u00a0 We reveled in the arrogance of peak physical condition and elite firefighter status.\u00a0 In the Boise Unit, if one of our number stayed with the crew long enough to reach their 30th birthday we did the right thing and had a \u201ckeggar.\u201d \u00a0 The theme for the party was a funeral.\u00a0 They were officially over-the-hill at 30.\u00a0 The McCall Unit may have had the same tradition, the two crews were pretty much joined at the hip.\u00a0 We trained our rookies, we called them \u201cNeds,\u201d together in McCall.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In those days candidates over the age of 27 were too old to be considered for new hires.\u00a0 The rare \u2018jumper who attained the ancient age of 40 was retired from parachute jumping.\u00a0 At that age they had usually been in management positions for a long time and rarely did more than routine qualifying jumps with occasional rescue or fire jumps when necessary.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Laws have changed.\u00a0 Now, Smokejumpers can jump and fight fire as long as they can pass the physical. \u00a0Women are Smokejumpers. \u00a0A remarkable number of hardy souls from my era stayed in until the new mandatory retirement age of 55 or optional retirement at age 50.\u00a0 Sooner or later we all got hurt.\u00a0 Some were maimed or killed.\u00a0 Some endured less severe career ending injuries.\u00a0 The lucky ones healed up enough to keep jumping or voluntarily leave the program.\u00a0 After a few years we all started getting up slowly in the morning to take inventory of our various aching parts.\u00a0 I managed seven years without serious injury.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I decided I was getting too old for the job at age 25.\u00a0 The smoke, heavy packs, long hours of firefighting, and slamming into the ground were taking their toll. \u00a0I had breathed too much smoke, my lungs were the weak link. \u00a0I was also eating NSAIDS like candy. \u00a0 Arthritis arrived at 40.\u00a0 I had a bone scan a few years ago and made the mistake of looking at the image before the final diagnosis.\u00a0 I thought I was full of cancer from the top of my head through my pelvis.\u00a0 The doctors were confused until I explained my history. \u00a0They said my scan looked like that of a pro football player.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I became an administrator.\u00a0 That lasted until age 31 when I became an FBI Agent.\u00a0 The FBI Academy was a bit rigorous but nothing like smokejumper training.\u00a0 The work was fascinating, occasionally strenuous, often stressful, and the best job in the world.\u00a0 After a short time, nothing humans did was a surprise. \u00a0The best part was when I least expected it, I often saw the best of humanity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I retired in 2005 with 32 years of service; 22 years in the FBI and 10 years in the Forest Service.\u00a0 I felt like I had stepped into a tornado in 1983 and it spit me out in 2005.\u00a0 I was fortunate to be under the Civil Service Law Enforcement and Firefighter retirement.\u00a0 I loved the work and would do it again in a minute.\u00a0 No reservations.\u00a0 My health has started to wane.\u00a0 It was time to enjoy my wife and family, slow down, and do some traveling.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is not the years, it\u2019s the miles.\u00a0 In my case anyway.\u00a0 Mentally I am about 24, physically I am sometimes about 75. \u00a0It\u2019s all relative.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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It is all relative.\u00a0 I am really not an \u201cold guy.\u201d\u00a0 Virginia, my mother-in-law lived to be 90.\u00a0 She often referred to my wife and I as babies.\u00a0 Store clerks sometimes regard me with the martyred patience reserved for alzheimer\u2019s patients.\u00a0 That\u2019s OK, I can only hear about 20% of what they are saying. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320,"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tagesuppe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}