Invulnerability

OK sports fans, I'm thinkin' this might be a repeat, but at my age, I get the privilege of a few Alzheimer "do-overs"?

I was anointed a TEXAS HIGHWAY PATROL TROOPER at the ripe ole age of 20 years.

I was sent from the grandiose east tx piney woods to what I called "south texas" (San Antonio) after completion of Armageddon (Trooper academy).

My first partner was the oldest (39) and most senior (17 years) Trooper in the district.

Jim was already called "the old man" by the other Troopers. I naturally was called "the boy".

Kinda hard for me to imagine in my dotage that I was once thought of as a babe among men in a challenging profession, but I reckon all things come full circle?

These days, I am likely bout as smooth as a pig on stilts and often feel like I got ate by a bear and pooped off a cliff, but my mind still remembers that slim athletic "boy" that took care of business on the south side of ole San Antone.

Shore glad I did it when I could and can now bask in the memory of youth and invulnerability.