Pop Pop Epistle # 213 – HB Bowen and the Adventure of Being Ten

Dear Bowen,

I have no doubt that this will be another year of adventures for you. I already know about some of the excitement on the horizon (India and Thailand)  and hope to be a part of making other adventures happen. You of course know what I am talking about since you saw what happened when Grayson turned 10. Nona and I are very much looking forward to your trip with us – wherever that ends up being.

Here is a little bit of personal reflection about the year that I turned 10 years old. It was a crazy year.

The year was 1968.

• Two national figures had just been assassinated: Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
• The Vietnam War was going on.
• Richard Nixon was elected president – which would later lead to Watergate and political turmoil.
• I moved from 633 Aldrich St in Aiken to 848 Oleander Dr.
• I changed schools from North Aiken Elementary to Aiken Elementary.
• I moved next door to the England family which would be significant in my spiritual pilgrimage.
• I had an operation to remove a swollen lymph node from the side of my head.
• I was runner up in the school spelling bee as a 5th grader.
• I was playing Little League baseball and had become a New York Mets fan.
• I lived with my mom and my brother (Bett and Gus)
• My dad was still alive and lived 60 miles away in Columbia SC
• I was beginning to learn and love the game of golf – and to become a Master’s Tournament addict.
• I was still 11 years away from meeting Nona.

I say all that to let you know being 10 does not seem like that long ago. And yet here I am 56 years later. So as King Solomon would say in Ecclesiastes 11:9, “Rejoice, O young man in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.” And even though I am 66 years old I am still trying to do that same thing – since in my mind I am a lot younger than my body sometimes leads me to believe.

I’m looking forward to our adventure together and the stories we will tell – not only this year but in the years to come.

Never forget that you are very loved!

Pop Pop