Jim Phillips:
CLASS OF 1975
Douglas High SchoolClass of 1975
Douglas, AZ
Jim's Story
Enjoying this great life that I have lived and even with all of its challenges I have grown to love the saying "On to the next exciting adventure." I have played music with people that I never thought I would ever get the opportunity to even meet, little alone share a stage with them. Life has been great I have always looked back at all the people and their brothers and sisters that I grew up with and we never know why these people were brought into our lives or what we were supposed to learn from them. That old saying "every thing happens for a reason" comes to mind. I grew up with people that had very little but always had a lot and they taught me that we were all born millionaires if we measured our wealth on our experiences more than the dollar. I have always been blessed with being able to make some one laugh, something that I guess came natural for me and as I grew up realized that some people do not like to be happy and sometimes get upset. I was at our 20th reunion and for some reason my head said lets change identities with a twin but how about a female twin because I always liked this person as a human being, she was down to earth and well you know I was kind of always out there so I thought maybe it would help my mind to see what a normal person was like. Well her sister didn't like the idea that I was related through a name tag or she thought she would start looking like me and she pulled it off of me a few times and well her sister and I had fun with that a few times. I thank that special person for letting me feel normal for a few seconds at a time through out the night and we didn't even use each others credit cards to fly to the Bahamas or England for one of those exotic vacations that we here about some one doing when they borrow some one else's identity on TV.
In 2009 I started seeing some changes in my life. The things that I enjoyed doing like playing drums and building cars and remodeling old buildings or building new houses started hurting the old body. I stared having problems with my back and in 2011 it broke loose. I ruptured a disk in my neck and all of the things that I loved to do came to a screeching halt. Viejoism had set in big time. I thought of all the things that I did to abuse my body and thought it had finally gottin even with me. I still remember my dads favorite saying when he asked "what do you want to be when you grow up" and I said a rock star and he said "well you better learn a trade that you enjoy so you'll always be able to eat" I never found a trade that I didn't enjoy and learned if you learn multiple trades and you will never go hungry. I also freelance designed and still draw all of my plans on the good old board. After my neck injury i couldn't even hold a pencil up against a straight edge and draw a straight line. Well I worked my butt off to get almost back to normal except the pain in my back and neck kept me playing my drums or cangas as it took all of my energy to make it through the week at work and all of my free time was needed to rest for the next day. I decided to get back to stretching strings to bring the love of music back into my life and even that was a challenge as the damage from my neck had taken away some of the motor skills to my hands. I learned that your whole life can change in a New York minute. Well after blaming my loss of energy and pain on "VIEJOISM" I found out what was really going on in my body. Six months ago my whole life changed again. Just when you think it is safe to get back in the water well that ol dorsal fin just reappears. My neck injury had masked what was really going on in my body and my kidneys had gone into renal failure. They took blood and my PSA was in the 800's and we realized I had prostate cancer. When they went in to take a peak at what was going on in my bladder they found that the tumors had grown over the ports to the kidneys. They also found out that it had spread up into spine and scull and shoulders and down into my femur. My wife and I were kind of in shock when the doctor said you have stage 4 prostate cancer and it is inoperable. The doc also said it had been in my body for a few years so it wasn't just "VIEJOISM" that was kickin me in the butt. Prostate cancer is one of the slowest growing but it has different aggressions. On a 1 being the lowest and a 10 the highest mine is at a 10. I didn't have any of the normal symptoms because it didn't grow from the inside out it grew on the out side and traveled up. Funny thing is I have been going to a Doc for a few years for Diabetes and even though I really didn't apply my self to education when I was growing up I realized how important education is as I got older so I have always gone to UMC and have used there clinic where the residents get their experience and figured some one might get a real education on how to keep this old man alive after what I have put this ol body through. Well there is one test that they could have done that may have found this earlier but the results are kind of still not 100% sure and that is a PSA test. I'm not sure how long I have left on this earth as I have taken some steps to slow the cancer down but the existing damage that I live with is kind of challenging. The Doc kind of gave me the text book you can live for 2 - 10 years and we have slowed it down but it will always be with you, I guess kind of like our child hood memories.
Well after getting this news I guess our mind starts going through this walk through life thing. I have this great lady that I married 16 years ago that I wake up to every morning and wonder what "EXCITING ADVENTURE" is in store for us today. She helped me conclude that I have worked hard all of my life to support my family and what would I like to do to reinvent my last days on earth. It's kind of scary going from working 21 to 18 hours some days to barely getting in 5 hours and the plug gets pulled and walla no more juice and you don't know when the plug is going to get pulled. It's real hard going from a workaholic mentality to all of the sudden your just trying to remember what the day is. It is also hard not getting up every morning and going to a job that was not only challenging but also gave me so much brain candy! JIM PHILLIPS ATE BRAIN CANDY AND ENJOYED IT !!!!!! Well people I had the opportunity to work with some of the most intelligent people on earth. and enjoyed every minute. I received an education that is priceless and working in this atmosphere also gave me a desire to learn so much. I realized that school isn't the only place to get an education and so many people put too much emphasis on what kind of degree they have with out realizing there are people out there that have these wonderful minds. I look at a lot of our friends that were...Expand for more
raised by people with 8th grade educations that were successful business owners who had their doors open for over 30 years. They didn't have the opportunity to go to school because of the depression. If you were interested in something that they had accomplished they would spend hours with you telling you why they did what they did and most of all they were proud of what they had done. Now you can be a genius, but if you don't have a PHD behind your name you aren't recognized.
I don't know how long I have on this earth and wake up every morning thinking of some one from Douglas that touched my mind and funny thing is I have never been anywhere on this planet that I haven't run into some one from Douglas or had ties to Douglas. I look back and think of all of the friends that I had and how almost every one got along and respected each other for who they were not their beliefs or skin color or how long their hair was or the boots that they wore. I know there are a few people that had some sort of prejudism but there were just a few.
I have to thank all the teachers that tolerated me and helped me make it through what I can say were some tough times for me and realized that school was not a priority to me because I just wanted to get out of there and go make money. MAN WHAT A MISTAKE I MADE!!!!!!!!!! If only would have known how much I enjoyed engineering and how hard it was going to be going to school while raising a family and the money that I thought was really good is actually going to be peanuts today I think I would have made some different choices. My Dad god rest his sole offered to put me through college to become a doctor or a lawyer if I wanted to and I chose to let him become my educator. He gave me a business education that I could not have received at a university but again it also didn't come with any initials with it. The only initials it did come with was the Jr. behind my name. He did teach me one thing that has always been helpful and that is if you want to learn something go sit down and talk to some one that has been successful at what you want to learn. I have met a lot of great people over the years and a few shady people too but have most of all really enjoyed most of my life here on earth. At some point I will be joining some of our friends that have already left us and will be donating my body to science so maybe they can figure out how I have stayed on this earth as long as I have and maybe see something that might help save one your kids or even you. When this happens all as I have to say is tip a glass of your favorite drink, eat your favorite meal and don't ever stop laughing and "I"LL BE ON TO MY NEXT EXITING ADVENTURE"
I have enjoyed this stay on earth and even though I have left the Douglas I will never forget the people that helped me become the person I am today.
9/24/2013
Two weeks ago I went in to get these stints in between my bladder and kidneys removed but had been in a lot of pain so the Doc wanted to take some pictures and see what was going on in there. Well he decided to just change the stints since my kidney readings had gone up quite a bit and so had my PSA. readings. He mentioned that he found a renegade mast in between my bladder and prostate and no telling where else it has decided to grow. I guess it all goes with it doesn't matter how hard you try to push the envelope when your number is up it is up. I have learned what it is like to feel totally out of control of some thing you have worked hard to accomplish. I never let any thing keep me from trying to do something I believe can be done. Now I have days where I struggle to just get up. I used to say I never realized that I had that part on my body now I feel it every day as a reminder and it has even stopped me from doing the things I used to love doing. I guess the biggest thing that I have learned from all of this is we are all born millionaires, it just depends on how you measure your wealth. We grew up with people that at the time we thought had nothing but after this trip of a life I've lived I realized they had every thing but didn't even realize it them selves. I've watched families and friends judge each other over the money or possessions they have or had and let greed over take love. When we come to the end people, you leave this earth and you don't even get to take that body you have spent hours on trying to impress others with. I learned that you leave an impression on every one you see every day. That impression is left there forever. Every one remembers a smile or an act of kindness and they remember the other acts as well. I had an old friend tell me do you remember when I kicked your ass and my response to that was "I don't think either one of us really won that fight because Mrs Beck had us both by the ear and we both got swats." The one thing I can say is they never came back for seconds and really what was accomplished there because we both were friends to start with and we stayed friends for many years after. If some one would have won, one of us would not have been here to talk about it. LOL So David we had a good spar!
I do realize that we had some great teachers that really cared for us and even after we graduated were willing to explain something they were compassionate about if we didn't understand or had a question about. We grew up in a little town that the business owners would talk about their ways of strategy and help one another when times were bad. They also had compassion for the little town across the border and realized that they were just as important to the economy of Douglas as our own city was. I remember food drives when the peso dropped so bad that people where starving and the message from my dad and his friends were if your neighbors are starving you will be starving too as the stores will not be able to keep the shelves stocked if no one can afford to purchase their stock. We used to think Bayless and Safeway where our big box stores and guess what, THEY PAID A LIVING WAGE! I remember the talk was when PD leaves this town other businesses will come and they did, with minimum wages as well. Many of us left this little town we were raised in to try to make a living wage but I am sure a lot of us would have really liked to have stayed there. Who knows when I leave this earth where my spirit will wind up as I'm still wondering what goes on after life ends. This whole living thing has to mean something for the next step and what was I supposed to learn while I was here to help me on the NEXT EXCITING ADVENTURE.
For those I will not see again "you all take care it was a fun life!"
Also if you would like to contact me go to Face book They do not charge you to contact people. Class mates used to be like when I first started .
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