Formative Years

Fifty-nine (59) years ago today I took the most fateful train ride of my life.   Newly inducted into the U.S. Air Force, along with several other guys also from D.C., I rode up to cold, upstate New York to begin basic training.

I always mark this anniversary, because of all the ramifications that my joining the military that day in 1952 turned out to hold for the future conduct of my life.

This shows that at the age of 20 my formative years were still far from over.  So when do a person's, or at least my, formative years ever end?   Even today, so much later, I still have good reason to think, Not yet!