Pappa Hardy's Musings on Life.

A large cruise ship like the Golden Princess is like a miniature city. We have approximately 3,000 passengers concentrated in a boat with 15 decks, a numerous number of staterooms, and lots of places to roam. If you book a cruise with your friends, you expect to run into them during the weeklong stay on board.

The last two cruises I have taken we have gone on our own. I somehow, despite my experience about this world, thought I would avoid seeing someone I knew. However, I ran into a long ago Cheyenne acquaintance, Kelcey Webb, from Cheyenne, Wyoming, during my August 2009 cruise.

I saw this guy walk by, knew I knew him from somewhere and he also starred at me. When I walked by his table a few minutes later, we starred at each other and then started asking questions. Sure enough, it was him. It was an interesting experience. I had been wondering, no more than 10 minutes earlier, whether I would end up knowing anybody on the cruise, and there we go, out of a nation of 300 million, I knew a family on this cruise. It was an interesting experience.

Yesterday Bonnie and I had an opportunity to attend the Davis High School Class of 1969 40th Anniversary Reunion. It was a lot of fun, and also very revealing.

It was a lot of fun to be able to visit with a lot of friends. The funny thing is, I don’t remember them growing so old. All of these people were walking around with wrinkles on their faces, grey hair, and some of them either looked so good or so old that you couldn’t recognize them. It was amazing.

We had a chance to hear from a member of our class who is now the congressman from the 1st Congressional District in the state of Utah. We heard things about members of our class, their accomplishments, and also had a chance to hear about members of our class who valiantly have or still served their country in wars and lands abroad. We also learned of those members of our class that are no longer with us because they have left this mortal vale of tears and have moved on to a higher plan of existence.

There were some comic things too. After the program was finished up, they had a rock group called the Barracudas’ (which consisted of old DHS Graduates) play some rock music for us. At the beginning of their performance, they said that if anyone complained that it was too loud, they would be showing their age. They proceeded to do a great job of performing some of the great hits of the 60’s and the 70’s. However, it was loud, and it was comic to see all of these old people, who obviously are part deaf (me included) straining to hear each other talk while the music was being played. Everyone’s ears were placed next to the other’s mouth so we could communicate. It was obvious we were all too old. It was a great event and a defining moment.

My generation has often been called the Baby Boomers. I come at the tail end of that group of people, and now is the time when you finally see evidence of our dominance wherever you go, for good or for ill.

Icons of that generation are evident everywhere, and no place is more evidence than at shopping malls. I was in a mall recently and saw prominently displayed pictures of The Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley. When one thinks of the 50s and the 60s, those are icons that will forever be indentified with us. It was a great time to be alive and to be young. Now, it is just as good a time to be alive and be old.

However, there will come a time when my generation fades out of the collective consciousness of the masses and they will not remember us like they do now. Our son Michael the other day told me that the last of his missionary companions was coming home. I told him that now Elder Hardy will just become a legend in the Raleigh North Carolina Mission. Soon, people will forget he was there, except for some members who will remember him with fondness. The legend of Elder Hardy will slip away. It is much the same with my generation, the icons and the memories of us will slip away from people and they will hardly know that we were here, unless we make histories and recordings of who we were and hope people will cherish them.

Last night I was sitting at the new Payson Swimming Pool, just enjoying the nice warm weather when I looked up into the air and saw something that in a round about way gave me a shudder. I looked up in the sky and saw a wedge of wings. There were ducks flying south. They were in such a wonderful formation. Nature can show some really beautiful things to us. However, seeing them move south, even in late August, reminded me that winter is coming. It reminded me that to everything there is a season, to everything a time and place. Yes, there is nothing so constant as change.

Seeing old friends is good. As I move on through this experience that we call life, I realize and appreciate more and more the old friends that have been part of my life. We are in Cheyenne visiting, and yesterday I had the opportunity to visit, if just for a moment, with an old friend Jeff Urry. Jeff and I worked for many years in the Cheyenne Stake (LDS Church) Young Men’s Organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Later on we served in the Cheyenne 3rd Ward together.

Time has not been kind to Jeff or I, if you believe that physical health is the measurement of how good life is. Jeff has MS, I have diabetes and a heart condition. Despite all of that, the friendship is still there and I love Jeff for who he is, a dear friend to whom I can confide in and to whom I enjoy his friendship. That is one of the beauties of growing older, is cherishing the friendships that have developed over the years and treasuring each and every moment that you have with them.

We went to a bed and breakfast with a couple of good friends of ours over the last two days. It was a fun time, being with good friends and getting away from it all. I think that is what makes life special, is old friends, good friends, and a time to enjoy each other.

This week has been full for me. I have had my wonderful family here. While Bonnie is the mother hen of this group and loves them here all of the time, I manage to hide my feelings better than her and therefore I don’t voice them as often. However, I loved having all of my children here, save one who could not make it. We wish he could have been here with us.

Today was special. We had the whole gang in the house this morning, and we ran off to church for a double header. We had the blessing of Braxton Bennett Hardy, and then we had the opportunity to hear Elder Michael Hardy report on his mission.

He did good. He took 30 minutes or more and taught the gospel. That was special. I was so glad that he was such a good missionary. I am so proud of my boys. I am proud of that new grandson, and I am proud of my sons. They have done us good, each and every one.

We had lots of family there, and friends too. We were doubly and triply, and more blessed today. It was a wonderful day.

It was a wonderful morning, full of more and more blessings.

I have a real good friend, one that I have been through a lot with. His name is unimportant. He currently lives in another state. I have a lot of respect for him and I care for him as much as friends care for each other.

A while back, he started having what he first thought was back or nerve problems in his legs. Eventually, no thanks to Wyoming doctors, he found out that he has MS. He is a brave man as he deals with this disease that he certainly did not invite upon himself. It is heart breaking to see a disease take its toll on a good friend. He is now almost bound to a wheel chair and he likely may never live to be 70.

I likewise have a brave new adventure to face. All the time I see in the newspapers now that so and so has died of complications due to Diabetes. The disease, in my case, that I brought upon myself will also take a great toll in my life. Luckily, right now my sugar is under control. However, it may not always be that way and I expect that I to am going to go to an early grave. Ah, the challenges of the world that we live in.

Well, here we are, at the end of another Year. I should be thankful I have made it through another one, but more than that, this process reminds me of the old ticking clock. I hit some milestones this year, one of which is I am now 55. I can remember when I thought 25 was old, and now I am 55. What the heck?

We have had such a good time with our kids being here the last week or so. Now, the place is cleaning out and we are going to go back to our old, boring, ho hum daily routine. We have enjoyed the youngsters. I just wish it didn’t remind me of how old I am. I got thinking today, this coming year is 2007. It is really making me consider the change of the years. I am grateful I am still here to enjoy it all, whatever it is we are supposed to be enjoying.

Heard some sad news today. Terri Dowdle, a good friend of Bonnie’s just passed away after a lot of battles with so many health challenges. I guess that is the other thing that reminds us so much of our own mortality. Well, the New Year rings in about 4 1/2 hours from now. It should be fun, right?

I had a good friend growing up that was there for me through thick and thin. His name was Norman White and I am sure glad that I knew him. What makes me sad is that since we both got married, and then I moved out of state, I have lost track of him. He was the one that I would bounce ideas off of. He was the one that was with me when the neighborhood snowball fights occurred. We hid in his basement when snowballs we through over his house actually hit cars. We weren’t bad kids, we just liked to have fun.

I miss good friends like Norman. He seems to be no longer part of my life, but if I could find him I would. The last I knew he moved, and I have been unable to track him down since then. He was a true friend.