Marbles

T

TickTock

Full time employment: Posting here.
Joined
Oct 22, 2007
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642
So this seems the most appropriate forum to post this (note that this is NOT my creation; it was forwarded to me in an email from my mother):


"Something to Think About"

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles." I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say...

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well, but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's "dance recital," he continued. "Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more, and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.

"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.

It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail", he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear."

"Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.

There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."

"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast." "What brought this on?" she asked with a smile. "Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.
 
TickTock said:
So this seems the most appropriate forum to post this (note that this is NOT my creation; it was forwarded to me in an email from my mother):


"Something to Think About"

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles." I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say...

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well, but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's "dance recital," he continued. "Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more, and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.

"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.

It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail", he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear."

"Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.

There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."

"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast." "What brought this on?" she asked with a smile. "Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.
Click to expand...


Thanks for this post. Good story for brain/heart food.
 
golf balls, pebbles, sand & beer

great story! another along the same line.......

What Really Matters

A professor stood before his Philosophy 101 class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He then asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous - - yes.

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and proceeded to pour the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things - - your family, your partner, your health, your children, your friends, your faith in God - - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else - - the small stuff."

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out dancing. Play another 18. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal." "Take care of the golf balls first - - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."

Thanks to John E. for submitting above, author is unknown.
 
I'll ask my dad if he knows him. Dad is 77, and is a ham radio guy for 55 years.........
 
Last edited:
Nice stories, TickTock and kaneohe - thanks for posting them.
 
I don't get it.

I enjoyed the stories -- I like stories like that, and thanks for posting them.

But, the first one -- what is the significance of him running out of marbles? Sure, I like the idea of him throwing away a marble each week (even though he spent $75 on marbles -- could have used that to go to breakfast with his wife), but this is a "be aware of the time you have left" story not a "how to estimate how long you will live story."

A lot of these email chicken soup stories are mostly fluff. That is, they have a lot of unnecessary stuff to make them heartwarming ("shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other"). The story had a good point "I bought one marble for each of my remaining Saturdays and I throw away one each week to help me remember to treasure my remaining time on earth." The rest of it was theatrical filler.
 
I get it now: the guy has lost his marbles!
 
TromboneAl said:
I don't get it.

A lot of these email chicken soup stories are mostly fluff.... The story had a good point ... The rest of it was theatrical filler.
Click to expand...

It's sort of like going to hear some retired, amateur musicians give a concert. You arrive and understand that the point is nothing other than you're going to hear some music. You see the trombone player open his case. You hear some music. You see the trombone player close his case. Hmmmmm..... everything between the trombone player opening his case and closing his case was "fluff." Actually, as soon as you saw the case being opened, you had the point of it all. Unless sitting there for the 1 - 2 hours between the case opening and closing watching some old guys scratch their ****'s, burp up lunch and feel proud of themselves for still being able to pucker up and blow means a lot to you. ;)

Ahhhh.... one man's fluff is another man's entertainment! Sometimes the fluff is a worthwhile embellishment to the point.
 
So does he shoot himself when he runs out of marbles?
 
youbet said:
... watching some old guys scratch their ****'s, burp up lunch and feel proud of themselves for still being able to pucker up and blow means a lot to you. ;)

Ahhhh.... one man's fluff is another man's entertainment! Sometimes the fluff is a worthwhile embellishment to the point.
Click to expand...


I'm sorry, but that just doesn't sound quite right. :D
 
TromboneAl said:
I don't get it.

I enjoyed the stories -- I like stories like that, and thanks for posting them.

But, the first one -- what is the significance of him running out of marbles? Sure, I like the idea of him throwing away a marble each week (even though he spent $75 on marbles -- could have used that to go to breakfast with his wife), but this is a "be aware of the time you have left" story not a "how to estimate how long you will live story."

A lot of these email chicken soup stories are mostly fluff. That is, they have a lot of unnecessary stuff to make them heartwarming ("shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other"). The story had a good point "I bought one marble for each of my remaining Saturdays and I throw away one each week to help me remember to treasure my remaining time on earth." The rest of it was theatrical filler.
Click to expand...

Good points Al.
I like genuine hart warming stories. However too many of them I read are manufactured "hart warming". Usually you can tell the difference by the fluff you mention. I don't like the emotional manlipulation aspect of it.
 
Khan said:
So does he shoot himself when he runs out of marbles?
Click to expand...

Nah..... He get's his marbles removed with a rusty knife without anesthesia. He only wishes he'd shot himself. :)
 
F-111. When you dump fuel and light the burner that is what you get. They found this out on an emergency landing whey they were dumping fuel to lighten the plane and needed more speed on short final. Tower told the crew the plane was on fire and to eject. Crew knew didn't and landed safely. It was always fun to pull up next to the tanker at night and blind the co-pilot...... I sure it was not always appreciated!
 
Rustic23 said:
F-111.
Click to expand...
Wasn't that the combined Air Force/Navy project that eventually became known as "Thud" and "Widowmaker"?

IIRC the Navy bailed when no one wanted to share the design costs of the tailhook...
 
The F-111 had no official nickname but was commonly referred to as the "Aardvark", "Switchblade Edsel", "Ramp Vac", and "McNamara's Folly".

The "Thud" was the F-105 Thunderchief.
 
REWahoo said:
The F-111 had no official nickname but was commonly referred to as the "Aardvark", "Switchblade Edsel", "Ramp Vac", and "McNamara's Folly".
The "Thud" was the F-105 Thunderchief.
Click to expand...
Eh, I thought I was mixing them up...

I get the "McNamara" nickname. But "Switchblade Edsel"?!?
 
Nords said:
But "Switchblade Edsel"?!?
Click to expand...

The F-111 was the first swing-wing aircraft in the US inventory, and the design was supposed to be used by the AF, Navy and Marines. The thinking (McNamara being an MBA) was to save money by building a single aircraft to fill multiple roles. Of course each service wanted different features resulting in a design with lots of compromises. Only the AF bought the plane, the Navy and Marines were much smarter in those days. ;)

McNamara was with Ford before becoming SECDEF, thus the connection to the failed Edsel name. Truth is, McNamara fought the development of the Edsel and tried to kill it before it became a spectacular failure. He failed, and so did the Edsel - spectacularly.
 
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