Remembering a Lip Warmer

It seems hard to forget but July 1969 I left the United States for a 13 month tour in Korea. It was called a hardship tour because family was not allowed to come along. Why couldn't it have been Germany, or some other place in the world where my wife and daughter would have had the experience of living overseas. Besides, my wife spoke German. Regardless the 13 months are etched in my mind with scenes of Korean life, way too much drinking, carousing, and friendships that did not last but were very important at the time.

It was while I was in Korea that I decided to grow a mustache, lip warmer, cookie duster, and crumb retention unit. I had that mustache until 2004.

Terry and I were sitting on the porch about 7 AM drinking coffee enjoying the cool morning air and the hint of the clear sunny day we should experience. We have a book called "The Book of Roses." It is a book we bought years ago when our flower beds were filled with rose bushes and we were into tending them. The book has activities associated with growing roses divided by months of the year. Terry in her own way has made the book into a little record of events that have occurred over the years. For example, when the Hummingbirds first show up in the spring is recorded. When we harvested our first chestnuts. There are no pages made for notes so her comments tend to be written at the head of a chapter or in the margins. Over the years when something happens of interest in nature or around the yard either of us will make an entry in the book. It does not contain too many entries but it is the kind of book that our children might come across when they clean up our estate after we are gone and become a personal memento of our time in this home.

Terry got the book out while were were sitting on the porch because it is about this time of year we take in the Hummingbird feeders and we were wondering if we had made note of the time of year they left in the book. We had not, only their arrival. However as we sat there drinking coffee Terry looked through the book and found an old Dear Abby article about things you mother taught you. It was tongue in cheek and humorous and we enjoyed it as she read the article. Then she came across a poem that my brother-in-law Chap had written. A short paragraph at the end of the poem mentioned he was saddened by the demise of my lip warmer. The note was sent in 2004. Terry and I remarked that it seemed a lot longer ago that I had shaved my mustache off. But it had been only four years. I began to think back, my children never knew my until they were in their 30's without a mustache. I wore that "cookie duster" for 35 years. I recall I debated with myself for several years about shaving it off. I always felt it looked a little unkempt and it had grown so white I thought it made me look older than I am. Shaving it off did not apparently help that. Anyway it is gone. I wore a mustache for over half of my life. I'm glad it is gone. I feel better without feeling that hair on my lip. It is amazing though how attached we can become to some thing.