Thirty- six years. (Almost) That is how long I have been working at Dillons grocery store. Back when I started with Dillons it was a Kansas company. Now, it is part of a bigger company, Kroger. Being part of a big company like Kroger has it's advantages and disadvantages.
The advantages are that Kroger has spent a lot of money remodeling and improving all of the stores in Topeka. If Dillons would of stayed Dillons we would not have the quality of stores that we have now. We also, would not have the advantages of lower prices by buying groceries in bigger quantites. The disadvantages are that you can feel more like a number than a person at a big company like Kroger. I tell people that when I retired it was like throwing a rock in the ocean. It don't make a very big splash and nobody notices it when you're gone. Oh sure, your friends at work will maybe miss you after they get over you abandoning them.
People ask me what are you going to do? That is such a tough question. I don't know if I have the answer for that one. I feel like I am still that fifteen year old kid working at the grocery store, not knowing what I want to do with my life. I guess, not much has changed after all of these years.
I wrote a song. I call it my retirement song. It is called My Stories Done. Here are the lyrics. It is different because it starts with the chorus.
God handed me a pen, Said, "Here, write your story.
Oh I could bring him pain, or I could bring him glory
through all my ups and downs, whatever I become
I will trust in you Lord, until my stories done.
That Job, I had in high school. oh that was my career
work hard and got promoted, stayed their forty years
That girl, I gave a ring to, left me for someone new
Her story messed up mine, but Jesus helped me through
Chorus
Sixty-five in October, my life has been a blink
The pen I'm writing with is running low on ink
I'm down to the last chapter, last page and sentence
I'll dot the period, and hand God back his pen.
Chorus
God handed me a pen, Said, "Here, write your story
Oh I could bring him pain, or I could bring him glory
through all my ups and downs, whatever I become
I will trust in you Lord, I will trust in you, Lord
I will trust in you Lord, until my stories done.
So when you ask me what I am going to do, my answer is
I am trusting God, until my stories done.