The Age Game

I played the coolest game on FaceBook yesterday. I can't figure out how it hasn't gone viral, but you just never know what'll strike a chord.

Here's how you play, someone randomly selects an Age for you and you post in your FB status what you remember of that year in your life. How many of you have FB friends that you went to High School or College with, but you know next to nothing of what has happened to them in the intervening time. This game is a great way to fill in those blanks.

Here's what I wrote:

When I was 30:
I was a Weather Forecaster in the Air Force assigned to Tinker AFB, Oklahoma City, OK. I'd met my wife, Joyce, the previous Summer out dancing at one of the clubs in town. (Country if you don't know) That Fall, we'd moved in together in a rental house just blocks from the base.

At my 30th birthday, we'd just returned from a multi-week trip, driving from OK to Florida to visit my Parents and Sister and then up to Virginia to visit Joyce's Sister, her husband, & kids. It was the second time around for both of us, so there weren't a lot of nerves involved in the respective meet the family. Also, I'd already met Joyce's Sister Louise in Ada, OK & her Dad in Arkansas, so this was just more of the same. On the way back, we spent a few days in Nashville being tourists. We saw the taping of a Statler Brothers' Christmas show and a Crook & Chase show that featured Little Texas.

As work goes, being in Tornado Alley, we'd just received the first working model of NexRad, the first Doppler radar. The prototype had been tested at Tinker and the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, OK. NexRad had dial-up capability to connect to radar antennas at other locations, so we were the first to be able to connect to antennas at Tinker and at Norman to watch storms from both sides. But most interesting to me, I had the best winter weather forecast I ever wrote. In a forecast written 18 hours before the snow started, I had forecasted the start time of snowfall at Tinker to within 1 minute of actual start time. (Since Base Ops had a big window facing the runway, we knew the start times that accurately.)

In all, I think 30 was a good year for me. Life was starting over again with a new wife, new family members, lots of friends, and plenty to do both at work and at play.

Want to play? You can find me on FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/jules.shore Ask me to generate a random age for you and then post your memories as your status. Be sure to tag me so I can see what you wrote.

Want to read more posts. I've shared global posts from friends to my Timeline on FaceBook.