I think the most important aspect of my first year of retirement is the time that I’ve had to reflect on my life.  We’ve all heard the expression “my life flashed before my eyes.”  I have “flashes” like these every day, that I haven’t thought about in years.  Plus, I’ve had the good fortune of living and having the time to write these memories down, as silly as some turn out to be.  Rather than the words of a dying man,  I see these “flashes” as celebrations of memories from the past.  For example, I had a memory triggered simply by a Carl’s Jr.  television commercial about their Sausage, Egg  & Cheese Biscuit.  I suddenly had a craving for something I hadn’t eaten in years, even though it seemed like only yesterday.

One of the stepping stones in my career was work at an advertising agency, a passion I’d felt since childhood.  (See Post #201).  I left my sales job at a radio station to work for B.J. Thompson Advertising, a small firm in South Bend, Indiana.  One of my responsibilities was to work with their largest account, Burger Chef Restaurants.  It was a franchise operation of stores in Indiana and Michigan, and I worked with them on local store marketing.  I designed some radio contests to create awareness for their products, including the Blizzard Wizard, and even found myself wearing the iconic Burger Chef and Jeff costumes on occasions when a hired actor didn’t show up for a grand opening.  I was proud of my job, even if it did involve stooping to silly attention-getting schemes like using the Hot Dog mascot of a local high school in Frankfort, Indiana to promote the Burger Chef frankfurter.  There were giant cakes and giant checks to show community involvement, and I secured live broadcasts and interviews from local T.V. or radio stations.  Burger Chef eventually evolved into Hardee’s Food Systems, and my focus then became hyping their popular breakfast sandwiches, something new and innovative in the fast food industry at the time.  That was my first exposure to the Sausage, Egg  & Cheese Biscuit.  I was even trained to work in the kitchen to better understand the operation, and to stimulate creative marketing ideas.

I left the advertising agency business, because “working on the other side of the desk” showed me that I was a much better salesperson than those who were calling on me.  It gave me a new confidence in sales, so I returned to selling radio advertising time.  However, I never stopped going to Hardee’s.  I would meet clients or co-workers there for breakfast, stop by for a soft drink and to use the restroom when I was out making calls, or have a Mushroom Swiss Burger for lunch.  When I eventually moved to stations out of state, I had to find a new fast food friend, and McDonald’s was everywhere my job took me.  An Egg McMuffin and Diet Coke still continues to be my preference, unless there’s an Arby’s nearby where I can get a Jamocha Shake.  Hardee’s eventually merged with Carl’s Jr., who serve the West Coast where I now live.  I hadn’t thought about a Sausage, Egg  & Cheese Biscuit in years, but thanks to the advertising that I sold to earn my retirement, I now know that my former breakfast staple is just down the road.  I can hardly wait to go there (or should that be “Hardeely?”).

I told my wife about this revelation while we were having dinner last night.  I could see that she was not impressed at all, especially after I told her I was adding it to my Bucket List.  Her response was that a breakfast sandwich was not something that you added to your Bucket List.  I quickly replied, “all right,” then I’m going to create a Pail List,” implying that it would be for those “goals” not big enough to make the Bucket List.  She thought that maybe it should be a “Pale List,” for those things that pale in comparison.  At any rate, I will soon have a Sausage, Egg  & Cheese Biscuit, just so I can cross it off my list.