There are few things positive about nearing one's 80th birthday, but having life experiences worth remembering, and the ability to write poetry memorializing them is one that I'm very proud of. That's what this book is about. The first and second sections of the book are comprised of a group of poems which look back over the early life of a young man growing up in rural Texas in the late 1940's and early 1950's. The third section consists of previously unpublished poems which have no other connection to each other than that they are the musings of a poet who sometimes can't turn his rhymer off. The final section acknowledges the truths of aging and looks forward to a future which I may never see, including an homage to my grandchildren and to the country I served and love.