Tuesday, September 12, 2006
THE PASSING OF THE TORCH.....
I was invited to attend a luncheon for the last of the “old timers” I worked with today. It was good to see Fred arrive at that happy place where he will soon be out of uniform and free as a bird. He is young to be retiring……but then when you’re my age every one seems to be young. I guess Fred is 55.……and I worked until I was 65 so he will have time for a second retirement of something else.
There is much joy at a retirement luncheon or dinner and everyone enjoys telling stories of the “good old days”………..the retelling gets bigger as the years roll by. Some of the biggest goof-ups, initially, become treasured tales that are told over and over down the span of time.
As with any vocation, the young people in the organization don’t get the connection with a lot of what goes on because work changes over the years. People change and work changes. They both take on other personalities that is foreign unless you’ve had a big part in it. A traveling crew becomes family because you spend a lot of hours in the vehicle going to and from the Examining Stations in the nine different counties our Troop serves. You learn to read each other and when someone is having a bad day you cut them a lot of slack. Your day will come along and they’ll do the same. You get very good at carrying each others burdens.
We’ve been there for births and deaths, happy occasions and sad occasions…….from graduation to marriage, divorce……whatever. It is a tight knit group of people who care about each other. That’s why when we meet at these retirements it is bitter sweet. The old days are gone……the days we spent together, but it is also time for new beginnings. The time we’ve all planned for and looked forward to. It is the culmination of hard work and dedicated service to the public.
At so…….we welcome the last member of the old crews as they were and hand the torch to Becky. She inherits the position of longest in tenure with Fred’s exit. She will be the next to go and has been part of the old and the new with her tenure. A bridge between two eras.
I was the first female Examiner in our Troop in 1989 and there have been many changes since…………but pride, honor and duty will never change. Those three things are the standard for the Missouri Highway Patrol.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
There is much joy at a retirement luncheon or dinner and everyone enjoys telling stories of the “good old days”………..the retelling gets bigger as the years roll by. Some of the biggest goof-ups, initially, become treasured tales that are told over and over down the span of time.
As with any vocation, the young people in the organization don’t get the connection with a lot of what goes on because work changes over the years. People change and work changes. They both take on other personalities that is foreign unless you’ve had a big part in it. A traveling crew becomes family because you spend a lot of hours in the vehicle going to and from the Examining Stations in the nine different counties our Troop serves. You learn to read each other and when someone is having a bad day you cut them a lot of slack. Your day will come along and they’ll do the same. You get very good at carrying each others burdens.
We’ve been there for births and deaths, happy occasions and sad occasions…….from graduation to marriage, divorce……whatever. It is a tight knit group of people who care about each other. That’s why when we meet at these retirements it is bitter sweet. The old days are gone……the days we spent together, but it is also time for new beginnings. The time we’ve all planned for and looked forward to. It is the culmination of hard work and dedicated service to the public.
At so…….we welcome the last member of the old crews as they were and hand the torch to Becky. She inherits the position of longest in tenure with Fred’s exit. She will be the next to go and has been part of the old and the new with her tenure. A bridge between two eras.
I was the first female Examiner in our Troop in 1989 and there have been many changes since…………but pride, honor and duty will never change. Those three things are the standard for the Missouri Highway Patrol.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
