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Davis Young
- Sep 6, 2022

DY: In Just a Few Words (#99)

Going strong since 1961!

Friday, September 9 marks 61 years of perfect living as the husband of Karen Ann Lesher Young. That’s 22,265 days without a single disagreement.

Somebody asked if this was a big anniversary? I said, At our age, every anniversary is a big one.

So, there we were in 1961 just a couple of kids without a care in the world just wanting to get married. (I think we just wanted to go on a honeymoon.) Today, we’d probably live together until we were 32, when we’d finally decide the test drive was over and it’s time to get married and move forward. Back in the day the thought never crossed our minds.

1961. Sputnik. Who remembers that? It was a big deal then. It was the beginning of the Space Age. For today’s young people it’s ancient history. Remember the Cuban Missile Crisis? We were on the verge of a nuclear meltdown with Russia. Nothing's changed on that front. And, is the Peace Corps really 61-years-old?

Who can believe that Tracy Young Bins is 59 and her little brother, Denny Young, is right behind her at 56? Oh how those two kids have enriched our lives. We talk with them every day right up to this moment. And, let us not overlook their combined four offspring - Halle, 26; Carly, 23; and the grand twins, Izzy and Jake, 15. These kids live in a whole new world. If you weren’t a young adult in 1961, you don’t really grasp how fast things have changed. And, the rate of change is doing nothing but getting faster. Go with the flow or make room for somebody else. Am I the only old guy who is tech-challenged?

Back in the dark ages we dumped quarters into pay phones for 3-minute long distance calls - best completed after 11 p.m. or on Sundays, when the rates were lower. Now your cell phone lets you talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime FOR NO EXTRA CHARGE and you can see each other while you do it. An internet? The word wasn’t even coined in 1961.

We think there’s a lot of violence now, and there is, but in 1961 we were entering an era when guns would cut down two Kennedy brothers and Malcolm X, and put George Wallace in a wheelchair. Who knew?

I caught a real break all those years ago when a friend fixed me up on a blind date with the one who would be my life partner. I wouldn’t trade the last 61 years for 61 gazillion dollars. We are a team. We continue to do all kinds of things together. While many have fallen by the wayside through those years, we stand tall in our relationship. It’s been a great ride all the way.

Thank you, Karen. The fact that we continue as a team all these years later says it all. Happy 61st. But, who’s counting?

On to the future. Whatever it holds, we’ll do it together.

In the meantime, stop telling me to pick up my socks. I’ll do that when I’m good and ready.

DY: In Just a Few Words is a blog that comes out when something needs to be said or every Tuesday - whichever comes first. Davis Young is a communications professional who adds 50+ years of experience and perspective to issues of the day. His emphasis in DY: In Just a Few Words will be humor (a touch of sarcasm here, a pinch of facetiousness there...). Once in a while, he will touch on something a bit more serious - but hopefully not too deep or depressing.

This blog is a product of DY Author & Speaker LLC. Feel free to quote content with attribution. Respond. Agree. Disagree. Share the content with your friends. Heck - even invite him as a speaker for your group! Enjoy!

Davis Young
- Aug 30, 2022

DY: In Just a Few Words (#98)

We will never forget this amazing country.

Karen is more adventurous than I am.

There - I said it. A lot of the places we have been are the result of her suggestions (and prodding). I did once suggest stopping at the Grand Canyon on a train trip back east after attending a business conference. Another time, I pushed to take a drive to Everglades City in Florida. But, if you’re talking about thinking on a global scale, Karen wins the prize.

Thus it was that, in 2014, we were having dinner one night when she presented this idea. I’ve been poking around the internet and I think we should go to Tunisia.

Woah!!! Where did that come from?, I asked. Karen responded, I’ve always been interested in how the Bedouins live and the trip I’m looking at includes a stop at one of their villages. Little did I know that the two weeks we later spent in Tunisia would be one of the greatest experiences of our lives.

I got to thinking about Tunisia again just the other day. But, I wasn’t remembering the Bedouin village, the camel rides, the Sahara Desert or the amazing Roman ruins at Carthage. Rather it was a story about a day trip to a cemetery.

Many readers have been to the American Cemetery in Normandy on the coast of France that is without a doubt one of the most emotionally moving locations in the world. Nobody who has been to Normandy ever forgets the row after row of white crosses that commemorate the 9,387 Americans who lost their lives there.

But I will hazard a guess that few of you have been to the 27-acre North Africa American Cemetery in Tunisia.

The site in Tunisia is smaller, but every bit as powerful. And, if you are there, you would think you are at Normandy. Again, the rows of white crosses in a perfectly kept cemetery where 2,841 Americans are buried.

Normandy, along the ocean in France, and the equally well-kept site in Tunisia are among multiple memorials around the world under the auspices of the American Battle Monuments Commission. The Tunisian site commemorates the battles that raged across North Africa from Morocco and Algeria to Tunisia in 1943 to free that strategically important territory from German control. The Americans buried here lost their lives in those battles.

Normandy gets the headlines and the visitors, but every memorial anywhere to Americans is worth visiting and absolutely worth remembering.

Usually, this blog tries to be on the lighthearted side to put a smile on your face or to just make your day a bit better. But, it’s important from time-to-time to stand back and remind ourselves of the courage and sacrifice of our fellow citizens to defend democracy.

Davis Young
- Aug 23, 2022

DY: In Just a Few Words (#97)

Apparently even the dime store experts couldn’t tell the difference.

When our kids were growing up, we made sure we introduced them to the joys of parenting various pets.

Most prominent was Thumper, our Black Lab. As a regular blog reader, you probably perused my recent post dedicated to him. You will remember my comment that he was both a serial thief and a cereal thief. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body. It’s just that he couldn’t keep his paws off other people’s stuff.

We also had two cats. One was named Nutmeg, and she was a recluse. The other was Myrtle, a cat who thought she was a dog. She couldn’t get enough of people. We’ll save Myrtle for a future blog all about her and nobody else.

Before we had the cats (you will see why this detail is important in a minute), our other pets were two male mice I brought home from the local F.W. Woolworth dime store as a surprise birthday gift for Karen. I insisted on males only. They could keep each other company in an aquarium tank on our kitchen counter that we converted into a home for male mice. Bet a lot of women reading this blog wished they had such a thoughtful husband.... Remember, I also brought home Thumper as a surprise. What a guy!

All was fine until one of the male mice gave birth to a litter of little ones. Now the aquarium was host to a real family of mice. They were well-protected in the aquarium tank until one day when a little one somehow got up and out of the tank and down to the counter. That was not a good day. It was a harbinger of things to come.

The house we lived in had a laundry chute that went directly from the second floor to the basement with an opening in the kitchen if anyone had anything they wanted to have washed in the basement laundry room.

The little ones got bigger (and bigger) and soon taught each other how to climb out of the aquarium tank to play on the counter. This became a very well-scrubbed (as in clean) counter top.

One day, we noticed that one of the mice was missing. How could that be? Where was the little guy (or guyette)? Remember, we did not have the cats yet, so there was no danger that this baby had become lunch for Nutmeg and Myrtle.

A couple of days later, Karen took a bed sheet out of the washing machine to transfer it to the dryer. Plop.... out fell a mouse. One of the most well-washed, cleanest and deadest mice of all time wouldn’t be missing anymore. The missing mouse was found, but just a couple of washing machine cycles too late.

The moral of this 100% true story is never buy two male mice unless you are prepared for one of them to produce an entire additional family.

Karen took the remaining litter (including the two "dads") back to F.W. Woolworth. She didn’t even ask for a refund.

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