MY MEMORIES

Retirement (continued)

For the most part though I just hung in there until I could afford to retire. In 1997 I did the arithmetic and found that with my pension from the Mississippi Public Employee Retirement System, my own savings, and my Social Security Administration allotment, which I could start the following January, that my take-home pay would be the same or slightly more than I was taking home by working. It was a no-brainer, I was out of there.

Nancy still had an additional four and a half years before she could retire. I spent that time period as house husband. It was one of the best time periods in my life. I did the meal preparation, some of the house cleaning, all of the errands, including grocery shopping which turned in to real joy. I went to the local Kroger grocery store where I got to know the green grocer, the fish monger, the manager, and the checkout ladies. A normal grocery tour took at least an hour, often more. All of that schmoosing paid off many times over. Every time I was looking for something I didn't see, the green grocer would go to the backroom and find it for me. When I had an opportunity to chat with manager, he would always say, “If you need anything, just tell me,” and I did so several times. When I got to the checkout area, the clerks would almost vie for me to come through their line. Even the grumpy one that I used to complain about to Nancy, got to the point she would almost smile. I’ll never forget the last time we were at the store as we were moving to Missouri, the manager shook my hand and hugged Nancy. By the time we got to checkout the word had gotten to two of my favorites that we were leaving and we got hugs from both.

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