A silver belt buckle, and nice plaque from my employer. An obsidian knife, hand crafted by an expert flint knapper; An antique ice ax (1937); several books; and a beautiful set of carving tools; all from the people I worked with. And, most importantly, about 6 dozen hugs!

I actually enjoyed my 37 years of doing what I liked.

I was employed for another ten years by a different agency, and when I retired from that position, I was just happy with the hugs; and a chance to have 10 more years, of challenging and satisfying employment. I would have probably stayed a couple more years, but we had real budget crunch; and leaving my position made it possible to retain a couple of younger folks. Besides, retirement is pretty nice. However, my wife, also a professional in the same field, and I still do some short-term contracting which pays for our travel and is also a lot of fun to boot.