Hobbies are the spice of life

Retirement hobbies can be the difference between just existing and living.

After 24 years of retirement and at age 87, I firmly believe in that credo. I had three major hobbies entering the unknown realm of my retirement, all of which could be performed into a ripe old age. They were gardening, photography and inventing.

I then added writing and making the rounds of garage sales.

I like Webster’s definition of a hobby: “Something that one likes to do or study in one’s spare time; favorite pastime or avocation.”

The number of years I’ve been pursuing my hobbies with a passion varies: gardening, 80; inventing and photography, 60; writing and garage sales, 20. To date, these hobbies have given me a lot of pleasure and some fame, but no fortune. Rather, some of the hobbies have cost me a small fortune, especially the many thousands of miles traveling to garage sales and photographing horses in Pennsylvania Amish country.

More than 300 of my photographs have been published in magazines, books and newspapers, as well as four one-person photography exhibitions at the Butler Institute of American Art.

More than 300 of my stories have been published in magazines, books, and newspapers, and my book, “Rag Man, Rag Man” is a compilation of columns that have been in The Vindicator and Senior News.

Raising 6-foot pepper plants for 17 consecutive years and entering and winning first place for the last six years in the Canfield Fair vegetable oddities division has brought me recognition, too.

Someone once told me, “If something is a fact, then you are not boasting.” I would rather have a tribute when I’m alive than one when I am gone. As Henry Thoreau said, “most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” You can change that by taking up a hobby or two.

Michael J. Lacivita is an inductee into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hal of Fame and Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.