Actuaries tell me that I can expect to live on this planet for a little over twenty-eight thousand days. I am now well north of twenty-six thousand days, so I better get busy.

Of those twenty-six thousand days, however, only a few really matter-at least according to author Richard Freeman. Freeman grew up the son of immigrant parents who worked on the Goodrich family's estate in Chappaqua, New York. And, in fact, it was Mr. Goodrich who helped the boy decide where to attend college and what to study.

A graduate of Miami University, Freeman became a banker and, later, a father of four. In a memoir following his life through the ice cream parlors of his youth, on to college days spent waiting tables and chasing his future wife, then to decades of learning the banking business and facing life's natural ups and downs, Freeman reflects on the ten most important days he ever lived...and a few might surprise you!