As the title states, 50 years is not very long. In fact, at the age of 64 it seems like it took about 2 weeks to go from being a teenager to now. An event last weekend was just another reminder of how quickly time passes.

The event which caused this reflection on time was the 50th wedding anniversary of my sister Janis Lee Johnson and her husband Wayne Johnson. The event was celebrated at a reception and dinner at their home last Saturday with many family members and friends in attendance. It was a great evening with lots of laughs, memories shared and great food.

Of the many in attendance, a number of us were there who had been at the wedding including several of us who were even in the wedding. The wedding took place in the home of my dad and mom with the ceremony itself taking place in the living room. I was in the wedding party and was the ripe old age of 14 when it happened. Frankie George Henslee was also at the anniversary celebration and was also in the wedding. In fact, she sang a song at the wedding those 50 years ago and sang the first verse of the song again last Saturday evening. She recalled that she had sort of messed the song up during the actual wedding but last Saturday, she sang it without missing a beat and with no music. It was beautiful as she has always had a great voice and can sing with the angels.

During the celebration, we shared many stories about their years together as a family and in our family including funny incidents about raising their 2 sons Brad and Chris, family trips, lots of good times, and a few mentions of some of the challenges faced and overcome. It was also mentioned that it seemed like yesterday we were all celebrating the 50th anniversary of mom and dad though that has been 20 years ago now. Wow, does time fly!

So, like many have said before me, the longer you live, the faster time seems to slide by. In just a few days, I will be starting my 41st year in the business of education. Seems like about 2 months ago I was graduating from high school and about a month ago I was teaching in my first position at Pace High School in Santa Rosa County when it had 400 students. It now has close to 1800 students.

I guess the circle of life keeps going as Anna got her first job teaching in Santa Rosa County  where she will be starting her 3rd year and Abby’s husband Thomas is a head basketball coach, which was what I did for 7 years early in my career and of course, Ashley is now a nurse, following in the footsteps of my mom who was a nurse for over 35 years.

Ashley is now 34 and the twins Abby and Anna are 26. About a week ago, all of them were babies. Our oldest granddaughter Kayleigh enters high school this year. Yesterday or so it seems was the day she was born. Our other 7 grands are growing up way to fast.

I recall vividly the first man landing on the moon, on July 20,1969, which just happened to have been on my wife Mike’s 16th birthday. I remember thinking that I would be an old man of 46 when the year 2000 came around. And I bet like many of you, I recall the major hoopla of Y2K when many thought doomsday would come in the form of all computers crashing and bringing an end to the civilized world as we knew it then. But, we somehow survived.

Anyway, as I stated in the beginning, 50 years is not very long and it passes way too quickly. Best advice is to enjoy every minute you have with your loved ones, family members and friends. Time passes quickly and when all is said and done, the memories of those good times is what makes life worth living.