SHELBURNE – My dear husband, Bill Alley, will be 90 years old on April 20. He asked me the other day, “How can this be?” I told him he’s been working on it for 90 years. We laughed about being a piece of work! Laughter is a gift at 90.
Bill is the oldest of four children, Billy, Nancy, Jimmy and Timmy. Whenever Bill called home when he was young, the first question his father asked was, “Anyone get killed?” No one ever did. When Bill was in his 50s, his mother still warned, “Billy Alley, I will not bring you peanut butter and jelly in jail!” To my knowledge, the only night Billy spent in jail was voluntary. I still tease him that he had to outgrow some bad habits before we met in 1985 as Vermont delegates to the White House Conference on Small Business. He has always been creative. It’s not everyone who joins the circus in his 70s.
An Olympian, Bill set the world record in the javelin. Pursuing his love of sports, Bill’s most fun invention was the Silly Putter. It allowed you to putt a golf ball around a tree. It began, of course, with a mistake. His best-known invention is a carbon fiber fly rod. The butt was borrowed from his golf club shaft. The tip was a straight catheter tube. Fascinated by medicine, Bill says his most prized patent is for the blood pump on the kidney dialysis machine. It saved many lives of people he never met.
Bill is known by many names: Bill, Billy, Willie, Dad, Pop Pop, Uncle Willie and Mr. Bill, all with affection.
Here is a poem to celebrate Billy’s Birthday.
Billy’s Birthday
Billy was a surprise on April 20, 1936
to a teenage girl and the boy next door.
He has surprised us ever since.
Billy had a rocky start.
As a child, he took everything apart.
Blowing the porch off the house wasn’t smart.
He channeled his energy into sports
and earned far better, even glowing reports:
All-American in track and on basketball courts.
Bill’s inventions are too many to mention.
He’s worn them all without pretension.
Self-employed, he has no pension.
The people he’s helped are his biggest rewards.
They mean more to him than his many awards.
Ninety now, he’s still looking forward.
His only competitor now is time
There are days when not everything rhymes.
I wish him a future to savor the sublime.
My husband of almost thirty-eight years,
in my life he has no peers.
Our daily “I love you” calls bring us both to tears.
In the spirit of April showers, if you know him, send Billy a birthday card.
