Senior citizen Leroy Alford, 69 of Lyons, was born on January 17, 1948 in Superior, Nebraska. He grew up in San Diego, California with 3 sisters and one brother. I asked Leroy how long he has been in Lyons and he said, “Since 1993, because my wife’s (Linda’s) family is from Lyons.” The next thing I asked him was what are some of his hobbies, and he said, “I like to do a little woodwork, fishing, and cooking.”

Leroy has been married for 39 years to Linda Alford. They have 3 kids, one stepson and two daughters. Over the years of being married, they adopted their 2 daughters, Amanda and Sarah.

I asked him what some of his life changing events were, and he said, “Career changes would be the most. I went from 20 years in the air force to driving a truck,” he laughed. Leroy had no particular plans right then and there for jobs, where it was mostly factory work. He was just letting everything fall into place. He was a Vietnam veteran. He was not in Vietnam, but he was close to the port. He is now a bus driver for the Lyons-Decatur Northeast School.

When I asked him what his biggest success in life is, he told me, “Everything mostly evens out.” He went on to say that the event that had the biggest impact on his and Linda’s life was when they adopted Amanda and Sarah.

The next thing I asked him was, “How is our generation different from yours?” I then giggled because I knew what he was going to say: “We didn’t have all the technology that you have now to rely on. We had to get everything through a library or magazine article.”

I then hit him with a question he never really thought about: what the Lyons community needs. “I’ve never really thought about it much because I’m too busy,” he smirked and laughed a little, “but there are definitely things we could use – more housing, that’s for sure.”

When I asked him what his biggest accomplishment was, he told me, “I don’t really consider anything big or small, it is just the things I’ve done and places I’ve been.” All in all, tons of people regret A LOT of things, but not Leroy; Leroy is one in a million. He says he has no regrets in his life. I want to be like him, living life and not having any regrets.

At the end of the interview I asked him a question I’ve been waiting for, if he had any advice for me. Leroy continued and told me, “Take it easy because everything changes from day to day. Make sure you don’t be too critical on yourself because everything is gonna change, and even faster now with technology.” Now I’m sure the interview could very well have gone on forever, but we’ve got places to go and things to do.