A card collector's mortality- slightly OT

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Posted By: joe brennan

I didn't add my age to the "how old are you and how long Prewar thread,". But I will do it here. I just hit the big 50 and for the first time in my life a birthday really hit me hard. I know its just a number, but this is a sober number.
Not to blow my own horn, but I will a second to come to a point.
I was a great baseball player in my youth. Accually, a great all around athlete. Baseball, football track, basketball anything I tried I excelled.
I played minor league ball and then played pro softball. I retired and played locally on 3 Texas state championship teams, being all state 3 years in a row and state MVP in 1989. I retired for good in 1992.
I am with my second wife now, and all she has is the stories of my once glory years. No one is left anymore to say' " I seen you play."
The years have come and gone and all that is left are fond memories and pictures of a younger man enjoying the days of his youth.
I don't feel like I'm ready for the grave, but I do miss the days when I could do any thing I wanted and not feel the effects of it for 4 days.
Someone smarter than me once said something to the effect "I want to go skidding to my grave used up and nothing left to give" or something like that. Problem is I gave so much in my youth that I feel the effects of it eveyday now.
Yes 50 is a very sober number.

A scared man can't gamble and a jealous man can't work.