I started out with the phone company as a garageman gassing up trucks.  Later, I bid on an installer/repairman job which I got. I worked that job for six years. When they invented the plug-in telephones, I was surplused. 

Thankfully, I got a job in the data center. I worked there for 27 years. Even though I live an hour away, I could have driven the drive with closed eyes.

I'd clicked my badge in the security door thousands of times. I knew the names and birthdays of all the security guards and the custodians. I knew the names of most of their children.

In the last few weeks in the office, I didn't get a great deal of work done. I cleaned out my desk and said long goodbyes with the people I'd spent a chunk of my life with. I know it's a tired expression, but it was a bittersweet time. After 33 years, I was ready to do something else with my life.

I turned 59 in January of that year.  The company made me an offer because of my age and years of service. I thought by taking early retirement that some of my younger friends might get a chance to stay around longer. Some of them did, but many of them were released.

The day I walked out of that building for the last time, I remember the look in the security guard's eyes, and I slid my security badge under the glass to them. That was a little after 8 a.m.

As I walked out the door and toward my truck, I heard a squawk from behind me. Two geese had landed on the edge of the building to see me off. I'd never seen them there before. I waved goodbye, and I never went back.