A Non-Nostalgic Life

I remember things in my past like everyone else that's for sure. I dont believe it's possible to live life and not remember something from your past, whether good, bad, or some of each. The majority of us will leave small pieces of our lives at different milestones of significance throughout our lifetime. Then at different times in our lives, we allow ourselves to pause or stop for a period of time, and immediately nostalgia is set in motion. So depending on circumstances, for some this is comforting, but then for others it can bring them to oppression, even depression.

Here's Ricky Glasston's storey;

 Young Ricky was barely old enough to grasp the basic concept of yes, or no, that he realized that certainly the "NO" presented a challenge for him. To him "NO" meant figure out how to make it a yes instead.

As a young child, in his pretend play time. He was always someone older, like big brother or Dad, pretending to do grown up things. When he got to Grade school all the kids in his own grade were happy playing tag, or sitting with the teacher coloring with crayons during recess time. This became boring for him after a short period of time. He saw the older kids playing baseball, football, hockey, etc and he knew this is what he wanted to do instead. He was always looking a year or two ahead of himself and succesfilly managed to compete on those levels. Teachers tried to convince him to stay with his own age group, but to no avail. First chance he got he was back with the older kids again.

 After the school bus dropped him off at his driveway, first thing he checked was to see if his Dad was working in the fields with the tractor. If he was Ricky would run out onto the field and just stand there and wait for his Dad to stop and let him drive the tractor, or at least ride along.

 His Dad was a small farmer and worked with smaller, older farm equipment. The farm tractor was a sixty horse powered Cockshutt 560 tractor. So this one day Dad was cultivating in the field when Ricky came running. He stopped the tractor and allowed Ricky to climb into the driver seat. He showed him which hydraulic levers to pull to engage or disengage the cultivator.

Sitting at the very edge of the seat Ricky managed to push the clutch pedal in far enough to place the transmition in gear, disengage the clutch and he was on his way. Dad stood on the side step of the tractor for a couple of rounds to make sure Ricky was managing and was comfortable. Then without warning he just jumped off the step and left Ricky to drive the tractor and cultivator on his own. Ricky was surprised at this and quickly looked behind him as he left his Dad behind. He was half expecting to see his Dad put up his hand and tell him to stop. But instead he saw a Dad with a proud look, a big smile, and a thumbs up sign. He couldn't believe the awesome feeling he had inside. He was actually working the equipment on his own. Life couldn't have been better for young Ricky Glasston!

When he was in grade four he realized the 7th and 8th graders were playing flag football in the mornings befor school started. Well he showed up the next morning to play. Mr. Petkau, the 7th and 8th grade teacher/school principle, was overseeing the morning activities, saw the much smaller 4th grader mixing in with the older students. Not only was he over seeing the football activity, he played the quarterback position on one side. He had to quickly decide where to place Ricky. To keep him from getting run over he decided to put Ricky on his team.

 So the game started and they had their team huddle to hear the quarterbacks play strategy. So Mr.Petkau instructed a 2 cross pattern play. Then said to Ricky, " wait till you see the cross pattern then You go deep, make sure your a ways behind everyone. If my cross patterns are covered I'll throw the ball to you.  Everyone then took their positions along the line. The quarterback, Mr. Petkau then called for the ball, the cross pattern ran out, and Ricky took off running as instructed. When he turned back towards the play, he saw Mr. Petkau point in his direction wind up and throw the ball. Ricky backed up a bit, stretched out his arms and caught the ball. The force of the throw almost knocked him off of his feet as he turned and ran for the touchdown before anyone even got near him to pull his flag. Ricky beaming with triumph, ran back to return the football to Mr. Petkau.  Ricky was well rewarded with seeing a big smile on the Principles face, and hear him exclaim " Great catch Ricky"!

This accomplishment had a huge impact on Ricky's confidence and self esteem. This immediately earned him a level of respect that some students never achieve. Had Ricky seen the seventh and eighth graders as giants, and had he been intimidated by them, he never could have accomplished what he did that morning.

 He needed to be where the action was, be part of the action, better yet create the action.

When he got into his teens he got himself into some trouble like everyone does. But he was a forward thinking kid and a problem solver. Ricky learned early in his teen stage you don't solve to much looking back, but rather you solve and resolve by thinking and moving ahead.

 His parents and teachers were supportive of his ambitions. At this tender age his ambitious nature needed direction, discipline, love, and understanding. To find and maintain this balance was not an easy task for him. His nature was to progressively move ahead, but he had to learn that due diligence was an equally important factor.

 Ricky was a fortunate young man in that he had parents and teachers that encouraged his progress and recognized his potential. Inspite of his mistakes he was allowed to voice his oppinions and act on his ideas, and he had many!

Looking back on Ricky's life, there were a lot of positive influencers and mentors that just seem to come into his life at the right time and be in his path as stepping stones. The most important ones were his Father, a couple of teachers, and when he became employed a number of co-workers and employers.

His Dad was an avid chess player, and so were his brothers. So naturally this became an early game of strategy for Ricky. There was no distraction from technology, like on line chat circles and social media. Just a chess board and two people thinking up and employing their strategies to win the game.

 Music was another avenue where he could cultivate his imagination and be creative. He realized that in making and writing music he could define and express his thoughts and feelings in ways that he wasn't able to in personal conversations. Music was universal and allowed itself to be molded and reshaped into whatever style he chose. In his mind and heart, music never serves itself. But without prejudice its at the disposal of the inventor and to the benefit of the listener. Music to him was like an evolving door. It served as an avenue to let go of things, or to embrace things. Whether he created music or listened to music, it just seemed to have a way of uncomplicating things in his life.

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Today Ricky is pushing into his late 50's. While he has failed at some things and is victorious in others, it has matured him through the years and strengthened his proven strategy, which remains unchanged today. Today, he runs a couple of small companies where his business strategy still is, whatever it is that I decide to do today will present better, and more opportunities for tommorow.

 He was asked when he would start thinking about retirement.

 His reply to this was, " For me, retirement has no place in my lifetime. I know it's a general term and maybe even a legal term people use and that's OK. In my mind, to retire would mean to finally sit back and spend the rest of my days, weeks, months, or years, reflecting on how it used to be, you know the nostalgic years.

 While it's true that we can learn from the past, I will never chose to replace the opportunity of making decisions today. That will create better and more opportunities for tomorrow with the past, and how it use to be a better world.

- Fictional -

Written by - Peter Giesbrecht