Page 27 - Ready Set Retire

Ready. Set. Retire!

In days gone by it had never been a problem. You had only to
drive one of them to and from work, and the car was available
for the day. Not so in retirement! Every hour of every day was
booked. Mom had Junior League, bridge club, church
activities, and volunteer work at the local thrift store. Dad had
Rotary, his own volunteer work and church activities. They had
grandkids to go see, gardening to do, shopping to get done.
Dad edited a couple of Dr. Schuller’s books, along with the
Rotary newsletter, and Mom volunteered at the women’s
center at church.

Then there was the travel. They both loved travelling. Prior to
his relationship with Dr. Schuller, Dad had been a pastor of his
own churches, and then later went to work for his, and later
our, alma mater. He had a huge network of people he had kept
in touch with over the years. At one point, he got the idea to
start a tour company called, HowMar Holidays (he was
Howard, she Marge). For years they would pick out places they
wanted to travel to and would organize the trips through a tour
company. If they got so many people to go, they would travel
for free. They did this for years, and continued to do so in
retirement. They travelled all over Europe, Asia, Russia, South
America, and Scandinavia. They continued to do that well into
retirement until they discovered Elderhostel.

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