The rearview mirror of Life

On January 1960, in Hourtin in the Southwestern Department of la Gironde, France, the weather was down right cold, the waters of the Hourtin et Carcans Lake, the larger fresh water lake of France, looked dark and inhospitable. A squad of ten freshly inducted seventeen years old Sailor Apprentices were boarding a regulation French Navy Chaloupe for an instruction class on handling a Lateen sail rigged service wooden boat. I was among those "lucky dogs". None of us had acquired sea legs yet and the exercise was dismally lacking any kind of grace. I turned to the Second Maitre in charge of our group and (very) politely asked him how long it takes to learn to handle a sailboat. He smiled and after a chuckle gave me the universal answer of: "Five minutes and a Lifetime". We survived this afternoon of amazing mayhem without throwing any body overboard and luckily nobody was stupid enough to try to share the Lake with us. I had my five minutes and went on to larger and more elegant sailing vessels and became a decent sailing sailor.
Now I am an old man stuck inland and looking back at my life I wish that I could relive those two freezing panic stricken hours on Lac Hourtin et Carcans.