Pat Payne has sent me a short story that he wrote and wants to share with our class. Pat believes people our age should actively pursue activities to maintain our cognitive capabilities. He has selected writing.

We all need to do something that interests us in order to “use it or lose it”. I do not feel Pat will lose it because he stays interested in so many different things. Someday it will be “lights out” but it will not be because Pat did not try everything to keep old age at bay.

Pat wants to point out a few things:

1 A month or so ago I decided to begin writing fiction which exercises the brain much more than non-fiction since the writer has to create the story from a blank page. I also decided to write dialog.

2 Both of these initiatives were learning opportunities for me. I used numerous YouTube videos to educate myself.

3 Howard really did eat potato chips with pickles when we waited on our mothers to pick us up at West JH.

4 The last page is actually a picture of my father at his Dr Pepper business in Tucson, AZ. It was a failure and he and my mother returned to Waco after one year.

Hoping our classmates find this a fun story.

Click on the image above for Pat’s story.