Hi everybody! I’m just curious to know when everyone had the time of their lives. Mine was the summer/fall of 2016, when a friend of my mothers came around and we had a TON of fun! We went to Mauthe lake in Campbellsport, WI, a lake in Wild Rose, WI, a car show with my father that I now HATE, had fun in Madison, WI and many other places, played baseball, saw my now deceased uncle with his wife and two daughters twice, once at a campground and the other on the Fourth of July. After our friend went back to California, I went to a fair with my parents, had fun with my mother and aunt, got my garden tractor, and went to a hockey game with my mother and a couple of friends of ours.

Probably getting my first light!

Cool! What make and model was the light?

Probably college age when I got to socialize the most and didn’t have to work. Plus I was still hopeful about my future just cause I was still young.

And childhood of course because why not? I was young and everything was a new experience. So many fun memories at that age, and didn’t know about all the scary stuff yet.

My 30s have been the worst so far. Family ill and all dying off. I don’t get to socialize anymore because all my friends are married now and having kids so don’t speak to me anymore. And too old /bogged down with work and stress to make new ones.

Plus my future dreams are dead. I’ll never afford to buy a home despite working and saving for 12 years, because of what’s happened since 2020. And I’m never getting married, so not sure what I’m here for.

I did enjoy my early working years though when my job wasn’t so stressful and I still socialized often. Plus houses were cheap then so I was absolutely sure I’d have one someday…

I’m really sorry to hear that you’re having a rough time. My happiness ended in 2017 when my mother and I moved nearly 2 hours away from where I grew up to live with my stepdad and to get away from my abusive father. From that point on, my freedom was gone permanently! My mother got very ill and always let my stepdad punish me and control my life only because she loved him, even when I didn’t do anything wrong and always took his side for the exact same reason. My life as a teenager sucked because of these things and things didn’t get much better when we moved much closer to my hometown in 2019, but it was to to a house that didn’t allow cats so I couldn’t have my cats with me, the only things that made it better were living in a large house and being much closer to my family, nearly a year later, my step niece came into our lives. But it wasn’t too bad as she was only 9 months old, in February 2021, things got better for a short while as I went to a good high school for my junior year. Than everything turned upside down in May of that year as we all moved into a 2 bedroom apartment and had to attend a terrible high school that my mother forced me to go to because she wanted me to graduate from there, in December, I had enough and my mother offered (but actually lied) to buy me a greyhound bus ticket to Texas and drop out of high school, I declined because I was was completely unsure what I would do down there. Than my mother got sick again and my stepdad had to be home for 3 months until late March of 2022 and during that time, my mother forced me to attend school (in virtual) even when I got sick so my stepdad wouldn’t leave her and shortly after he went back to work, I went to school for one day and my teacher slapped one of my classmates and we tried to report him but failed. A week later, I brought a hidden camera with me to see if it happened again to get the police involved but I completely failed and haws forced to stay in the classroom with my teacher so I could do a test while the rest of my classmates went to music therapy. A few months after he went back to work, my mother lost her ability to drive and is barely able to do so to this day, and last year, one of my cats passed away and we began fighting rather often and than last April, my great grandmother with Alzheimer’s disease and pinkeye broke her femur at 1:00AM - 2:00AM, firefighters and paramedics showed up and to make things worse, as soon as she got to the hospital, all of her memories were gone and went was raging for over 10 hours. Shortly after having surgery and being discharged, she went to a rehabilitation center where my grandmother (her daughter) couldn’t leave her for any reason without her having a meltdown and was terrified to do so but things got somewhat better early last month when she went back home. She can no longer walk and a care company comes to take care of her every now and then, my grandmother hasn’t been working and has no income because of having to take care of her almost every day. My other cat that is still alive might get rehomed as she can no longer take care of him.

Probably the phase where I traveled around the United States tinkering with old army trucks and visited fellow collectors. I still do such, but having moved back to Alaska it's much more logistically difficult. When I lived in Illinois and Indiana, I would drive all over the United States to such.

That must’ve been fun! I plan on traveling around the country soon.

I’m so sorry you’ve been through all that. 🙁 Getting old and watching your family and love ones be ill and get Alzheimer’s and other diseases and health problems sucks!!!

My parents are alcoholics and I didn’t socialize much outside of school  (really never at all except once or twice) so it’s been hard. In late high school I finally decided I had to make friends and was determined to do so in college. I had a great time doing that but that’s in the past.

I looked at some of the traits that ACOA (adult children of alcoholics have) and it described me to a T.

I know your situation is different but I just wanted to say I think I can at least sympathize, and I hope things get better for you. 🙂

I’m really sorry to hear that! I’m hoping the same thing for you too!

My first streetlight was a 2010 Sylvania Roadster 250W HPS with the active reactor (and 2 ballasts). This very light https://www.google.com/maps/@-35.2536385,149.0749259,3a,15y,307.77h,114.62t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1symXtVcnwJJaEIumU521COQ!2e0!5s20211101T000000!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDgyOC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

@Cole D.  and @Milwaukeeman2003- I am very sorry to hear what you guys had to go through, I very much hope that things can improve for you.

Thanks! I am hoping the same!