‘I rarely become riled and accept things as they are.’

Art Frumkin was a bachelor who enjoyed the long hours of a high-pressure job. A few years ago, his life style caught up with him, and he began making some changes. Frumkin, 67, and his wife, Fan, live in Van Nuys.

The first coronary I had was in December of ’72. It was suggested to me that I should take up golf, and I started to do that after I convalesced. The doctor proved to me that I wasn’t as relaxed as I thought. It was stress and tension and my own personality.

The kind of work that I was in was performing a very vital service. The demands were great. You try as best you can to take care of the people, but you’re always harried. The days were worrisome days, and I’m kind of a Type A individual to begin with.

I was one of several sales managers for a large freight company, and a great deal of our sales promotional work had to do with public relations, which meant that my evenings were spent socializing and that sort of thing. Naturally, I enjoyed this kind of life style.

Also, I was inviting trouble because I was smoking about 3 1/2 packs of cigarettes a day, getting along on about 4, 4 1/2 hours of sleep a night and eating. I love to eat, and I was eating too much. I was terribly overweight.

I had a second coronary in ‘82, and I decided that I may not be as lucky if I have a third one. So as a consequence, I just take a more relaxed attitude about things and don’t let things bother me. I rarely, if ever, become riled, and I accept things as they are.

So now, life is nice and easy and is rolling along. It’s pleasant. As a matter of fact, I am recently married. My wife and I will mark our ninth anniversary in January. Until I married her in ‘81, I had never been married. I was 58.

I really cannot come up with any reason for not having gotten married all those years. I thought marriage was a very fine institution; always did. But I just merrily let the years go by. Of course, I met many lovely ladies and certainly didn’t lack for social contact of any sort. But it wasn’t until I met my wife that I really considered marrying.

Until my marriage, I was a very happy guy, and since my marriage I’m even happier. I think I missed a great deal on the basis of these past nine years, but I have no regrets. I’ve had the best of both worlds all the way through. These have been nine great years.

I can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying retirement. We have a full day of activity, which is exactly what we want. The important thing is that life hasn’t become a bore for us by any stretch of the imagination. My day starts at 6 o’clock in the morning when I walk with a neighbor, and we have a chance to talk about world affairs and various things.

I took up playing my cello again. I set my cello aside prior to World War II and never touched it again until I retired. I can’t say I play as well or as fast as I did when I was a youngster, but I play it, and I’m enjoying it. It’s great.

I’m enrolled at Valley College in a chamber music class, and I’m going to have a computer class five mornings a week in hopes that I’ll be able to join my fellow citizens in the 21st Century and know what the hell that’s all about.

My wife and I do a great many things together, and we still have our individual interests as well. She’s retired, and she’s a hospital volunteer. She has her other interests and pursuits.

We managed to do some traveling last fall to Australia and New Zealand, and we just returned recently from London. So we try to see the world and pack in as much as we can in whatever time is left to us. Up to this point, we have been blessed with good health, and we hope it will last for a long, long time.

If you get up in the morning and you don’t know how you’re going to spend your waking hours, you’re in trouble. What I’m basically interested in doing is trying to avoid this brain of mine atrophying. I just don’t feel that I’m ready to sit down in a rocking chair and watch the world go by. So this is what it’s all about.