HEY SHORTY THE FIRST 50 YEARS
Post 12 - March 12th 2023
As a part of writing this blog I have always intended to go back in time and chat about my life. Chat about who I am, what I am, things I've done and things I haven't done.
Because now as I continue into this life with Lewy Body Dementia, it means I will at some point not remember my past. For as sad as that sounds I am really ok with that. It is what it is.
So for me it is important to record my past life events and my own history, to have a written record of John the person. To have a written record of how I made it to this point in life in 2023.
Today I go back to the book I wrote in 2004 in my 50th year. Life was very complicated at that time and I embarked on writing my life story as a way of helping me deal with and recover from the issues I had faced with living on the street.
It really was great therapy and I loved writing the book and I loved having recorded my first 50 years of life. I called the book Hey Shorty for reason talked about in an earlier blog.
So, lets go, lets have a look. And of course the best place to start is at the start, so this is how chapter one 'In The Beginning' of my book started out. Enjoy the read.
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The First 50 years
In
the beginning
November 26th 1954 is the day it all began. In a delivery room of the Lady Weigall Hospital at Barmera in the Upper Murray region of country South Australia at 10-30 on a Friday morning, Doctor Geoffrey Hasenour delivered an eight pound full term baby and my life journey was off and running.
I was here, I was ready for the journey. This would be my life.
The next 50-years was to be some adventure. Highs, lows, down time, great times, sad times, happy times, drama, they have all been a constant.
Today as I reflect on that time I can only think that I have had a fortunate life. To say I have been blessed would never seem adequate, so much has happened since that 1954 November morning.
Life and the world of today barely resembles how it was on that day 50 years ago. So much change, enormous change in fact and I feel honoured to have been a part of how that all unfolded. Thankfully I have a great memory and can instantly recall events, times, people and places that have shaped this past half decade.
History is important to me and I embrace with all my might how mankind has navigated its way through these wonderful years. My life has been shaped in part by that history. And my life has been shaped by my own ability to navigate and live in these wonderful years.
Contentment comes from within and I must acknowledge that while I have many misgivings as to how I have handled the years the reality is that I have made it through to now. That is some achievement.
Am I content, yes and no. I have covered so much ground in that time and have experienced decades of personal change and world change. Disappointments are mixed with achievements for me and really I guess I have done ok knowing my own shortcomings have contributed to my awkward society standing.
That said, would I change anything, do things different? Here I can say with great clarity that I would not change a thing, I would not change a single day or single act or single event. To do so would not have me at this day with the wisdom, brokenness, knowledge, understanding and memories that make me this 50-year-old Aussie bloke.
Sure, I could have done things better in parts and who knows how that may have then played out but the person I am as I reflect over half a century is the person I have created through my 50 year adventure. Life is about making choices and sadly I have made some real howlers, those around will testify to that, they know I have messed up often. But through it all I make it to this point.
God has given me a personality and brain in extreme measures in many areas and that is not something everyone could handle. Many times my extraordinary talents have been poorly used but just as that is true at other times those same talents have allowed me to take on and take in so much of what the world offered.
Thankfully I have so many memories of so many wonderful life events, of times when that very life has been so darn good and so rewarding.
Do I thank God for giving me this brain, this gift of remarkable academic talent, this ability to navigate situations with cutting edge precision, this ability to battle and to battle some more to regain my own self worth at times when I really should have called it quits?
Yes, I do thank God. He has set me apart from others, that is a given and in His infinite wisdom and love He gave me the tools to navigate the minefield of life allowing me to somehow make it all work.
I am blessed and I am fortunate.
And with family I was always lucky from that very first day. But it would be somewhat of a scratchy start for the Green clan in November 1954 with my Mum Joan living back in Barmera while my Dad Jimmy remained in the Royal Australian Navy and was away serving on the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne at the time of my birth.
I would be three weeks old before my father was able to obtain leave from his Naval posting and returned to be with us in Barmera for a month. Once Dad returned to Sydney to join his ship, I spent my early days with mum and my older brother staying at my Grandparents, Henry and Winifred Danvers, house on their fruit property just out of the Barmera township.
Dad and Mum had married on Saturday December 9th 1950 at Barmera and I was the second child born to them. My older brother Rodney was born at Woomera in May 1952 while Dad was serving there in the RAN.
Mum had moved to Woomera in early 1951 a few months after the wedding and the town would be their home until early 1953 when Dad accepted a posting back in Melbourne. He was at Flinders Naval Base for just on 12 months and Mum moved to Melbourne with him.
Because Dad was married, he could live off base, so he and Mum stayed with the Johnson Family at Ferntree Gully in the Dandenongs on the outskirts of Melbourne. Aunty Alice Johnson and her boys ran a vegetable and pig farm in the area at that time.
Then when Mum was pregnant with me she moved back to Barmera and Dad took the posting on the Aircraft Carrier Melbourne.
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So, that is how my book Hey Shorty started and naturally the book then goes on to tell my life over 50 years growing up in country SA before venturing out and spilling over into so many different places around Australia.
I will say it again, I have had a fortunate life. Now with this LBD things are changing, and the health issues associate with my diagnosis will eventually change things forever,
But, stay tuned, I will tell some of my life tales as the posts continue. Reckon the stories are interesting and some very funny. But my life story also tracks 50 years of Australian and world historical events and happenings.
The stories do include the people who have impacted on my life from immediate family to rellies, cousins, mates, work colleagues, sporting teammates and sporting foes, great and interesting people and general riff-raff I have encountered across the years.
For now though, I am still doing ok with this LBD so let the journey continue.
So, that's the post for today. Thank-you for checking in, really appreciate.
Go Cats ...
But, yeah, as always I leave you with some JonnyG wisdom gained from this fortunate life.
When life gives you melons, you might be dyslexic
Can't wait for your next instalment
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