Clues that led to pope's resignation announcement

VATICAN CITY: With the benefit of hindsight, a series of clues leading up to Pope Benedict XVI's momentous resignation announcement this week suggest he had in fact been preparing the move for some time.

Benedict first mentioned he supported the idea of a pope resigning due to old age in an unusually candid book of interviews published in 2010 -- comments that made many wonder what he would do as he became increasingly frail.

"If a pope clearly realises that he is no longer physically, psychologically, and spiritually capable of handling the duties of his office, then he has a right and, under some circumstances, also an obligation to resign," he told his interviewer for the book "Light of the World".

There were more recent moves too that indicated the pope was tying up loose ends and readying a delicate transition: he will be only the second pope to resign for health reasons in 2,000 years and the first in more than 700 years.

Here are some of the most salient hints picked up by Vatican observers:

-- In October, the pope celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and launched a Year of Faith -- an attempt to rekindle religious fervour amid rising secularism in the West and a key aim of his papacy.

"If today the Church proposes a new Year of Faith and a new evangelisation, it is not to honour an anniversary, but because there is more need of it, even more than there was 50 years ago!" the pope said at the time.

"Recent decades have seen the advance of a spiritual 'desertification'. We see it every day around us. This void has spread," he added.

-- In November, the pope reached a milestone in his beloved career as an academic theologian by completing a trilogy on the life of Jesus Christ, which his closest advisers said was a personal project close to his heart.

-- In December, Benedict appointed his trusted personal secretary, fellow German Georg Gaenswein, to head of the pontifical household and elevated him to the title of archbishop, a move seen as a reward for a loyal servant.

The promotion also ensures Gaenswein will stay after his mentor steps down.

The previous prefect of the household, Monsignor James Harvey, was blamed in some circles for being too trusting of papal butler Paolo Gabriele who leaked confidential memos to the press in a perverse attempt to defend the papacy.

The "Vatileaks" scandal is seen by observers as an important factor in the pope's decision-making process as it affected him very personally.

The effective wrapping up of that scandal with a granting of the papal pardon for Gabriele just before Christmas could also be seen as closure.

-- In one of his most recent public speeches -- a 30-minute off-the-cuff speech to young seminarians in Rome on Friday, the pope spoke in very emotional terms about the challenges that faced Saint Peter, the first pope.

The pope said the apostle Peter's first letter in the Bible signalled the importance of having the papacy in Rome and said this idea carried with it a concept of university but also of the martyrdom that awaited the saint.

He also dwelled on the importance of a "chosen" people saying: "God thought of me, he elected me as a Catholic, as a carrier of the Bible, as a priest.

"I think it is important to reflect on this and return to this idea of election: I was elected, I was wanted, I respond," he said.

He concluded with a message of hope for a Church in troubled times saying: "The Church is always renewing itself, always being reborn."

-- Benedict's decision to keep on Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone is now being seen as a possible attempt to ensure stability in the Church hierarchy during the transition.

Bertone, a powerful and divisive figure, reached the traditional age limit of 75 for cardinals of the Vatican in January 2010.

He will take over interim powers of governing the Church as soon as the pope steps down and until a successor is elected by a conclave of cardinals.

-AFP/gn

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State of the Union: "Act two" of Obama's 2nd term

When the curtain rises on President Obama's State of the Union speech tonight, the White House wants it viewed as "Act Two" - a follow-up to the national goals and policy objectives of which he spoke 22 days earlier on the West Front of the Capitol.

"The president has always viewed the two speeches, the inaugural address and the State of The Union, as two acts in the same play," said press secretary Jay Carney yesterday.

Though Mr. Obama has given more speeches this year on his proposals to stem gun violence and overhaul immigration policy, the "core emphasis" of his speech tonight is the economy.

"You'll hear from the president a very clear call for the need to take action to help our economy grow and help it create jobs," said Carney.

That includes the showdown with Congress over the mandatory spending cuts due to take effect starting March 1.

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Valerie Jarrett on SOTU: "An optimistic vision"

The president will urge Congress "not to shoot the economy in the foot," said Carney, by agreeing to his plan to avert the across-the-board spending cuts which the White House portrays as mindless and severe.

The president will again make it clear he wants a "balanced" plan that calls for additional tax revenue from America's top earners.

"My message to Congress is this: let's keep working together to solve this problem," the president said Saturday in his weekly address.

But Republican leaders say Mr. Obama already got his tax hikes as part of the "fiscal cliff" package, and now needs to focus exclusively on reductions in spending.

It'll be Mr. Obama's seventh appearance before a Joint Session of Congress and he'll be taking the rostrum aware that the national unemployment rate still hovers just under 8 percent and economic growth fell into negative territory at the end of 2012.

"The economy is not in a worse place than it was before," said Carney, pointing to the progress made since Mr. Obama's first State of the Union Address. "We were in economic freefall."

He said the president will make the case that "we are at a moment when the economy is poised to continue to grow...to build on the job creation that we've achieved -- over 6.1 million jobs created by our businesses over the past 35 or 36 months."

Carney added the president will propose further steps to grow the economy in a way that makes the middle class more secure and helps those trying to climb the ladder into the middle class.

"That is absolutely going to be his focus in the second term as it was in the first term," said Carney.

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Fort Hood Hero Says President 'Betrayed' Victims

Three years after the White House arranged a hero's welcome at the State of the Union address for the Fort Hood police sergeant and her partner who stopped the deadly shooting there, Kimberly Munley says President Obama broke the promise he made to her that the victims would be well taken care of.

"Betrayed is a good word," former Sgt. Munley told ABC News in a tearful interview to be broadcast tonight on "World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline."

"Not to the least little bit have the victims been taken care of," she said. "In fact they've been neglected."

There was no immediate comment from the White House about Munley's allegations.

Thirteen people were killed, including a pregnant soldier, and 32 others shot in the November 2009 rampage by the accused shooter, Major Nidal Hasan, who now awaits a military trial on charges of premeditated murder and attempted murder.

Tonight's broadcast report also includes dramatic new video, obtained by ABC News, taken in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, capturing the chaos and terror of the day.

WATCH Exclusive Video of Fort Hood's Aftermath

Munley, since laid off from her job with the base's civilian police force, was shot three times as she and her partner, Sgt. Mark Todd, confronted Hasan, who witnesses said had shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he opened fire on soldiers being processed for deployment to Afghanistan.

As Munley lay wounded, Todd fired the five bullets credited with bringing Hasan down.

Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

Despite extensive evidence that Hasan was in communication with al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki prior to the attack, the military has denied the victims a Purple Heart and is treating the incident as "workplace violence" instead of "combat related" or terrorism.

READ a Federal Report on the FBI's Probe of Hasan's Ties to al-Awlaki

Al-Awlaki has since been killed in a U.S. drone attack in Yemen, in what was termed a major victory in the U.S. efforts against al Qaeda.

Munley and dozens of other victims have now filed a lawsuit against the military alleging the "workplace violence" designation means the Fort Hood victims are receiving lower priority access to medical care as veterans, and a loss of financial benefits available to those who injuries are classified as "combat related."

READ the Fort Hood Victims' Lawsuit

Some of the victims "had to find civilian doctors to get proper medical treatment" and the military has not assigned liaison officers to help them coordinate their recovery, said the group's lawyer, Reed Rubinstein.

"There's a substantial number of very serious, crippling cases of post-traumatic stress disorder exacerbated, frankly, by what the Army and the Defense Department did in this case," said Rubinstein. "We have a couple of cases in which the soldiers' command accused the soldiers of malingering, and would say things to them that Fort Hood really wasn't so bad, it wasn't combat."

A spokesperson for the Army said its policy is not to comment on pending litigation, but that it is "not true" any of the military victims have been neglected and that it has no control over the guidelines of the Veterans Administration.

Secretary of the Army John McHugh told ABC News he was unaware of any specific complaints from the Fort Hood victims, even though he is a named defendant in the lawsuit filed last November which specifically details the plight of many of them.

"If a soldier feels ignored, then we need to know about it on a case by case basis," McHugh told ABC News. "It is not our intent to have two levels of care for people who are wounded by whatever means in uniform."

Some of the victims in the lawsuit believe the Army Secretary and others are purposely ignoring their cases out of political correctness.

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Why pope will long be remembered

Tim Stanley says Pope Benedict will be seen as an important figure in church history.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Timothy Stanley: Benedict XVI's resignation is historic since popes usually serve for life


• He says pope not so much conservative as asserting church's "living tradition"


• He backed traditionalists, but a conflicted flock, scandal, culture wars a trial to papacy, he says


• Stanley: Pope kept to principle, and if it's not what modern world wanted, that's world's problem

Editor's note: Timothy Stanley is a historian at Oxford University and blogs for Britain's The Daily Telegraph. He is the author of "The Crusader: The Life and Times of Pat Buchanan."

(CNN) -- Journalists have a habit of calling too many things "historic" -- but on this occasion, the word is appropriate. The Roman Catholic Church is run like an elected monarchy, and popes are supposed to rule until death; no pope has stepped down since 1415.

Therefore, it almost feels like a concession to the modern world to read that Benedict XVI is retiring on grounds of ill health, as if he were a CEO rather than God's man on Earth. That's highly ironic considering that Benedict will be remembered as perhaps the most "conservative" pope since the 1950s -- a leader who tried to assert theological principle over fashionable compromise.

Timothy Stanley

The word "conservative" is actually misleading, and the monk who received me into the Catholic Church in 2006 -- roughly a year after Benedict began his pontificate -- would be appalled to read me using it. In Catholicism, there is no right or left but only orthodoxy and error. As such, Benedict would understand the more controversial stances that he took as pope not as "turning back the clock" but as asserting a living tradition that had become undervalued within the church. His success in this regard will be felt for generations to come.

He not only permitted but quietly encouraged traditionalists to say the old rite, reviving the use of Latin or receiving the communion wafer on the tongue. He issued a new translation of the Roman Missal that tried to make its language more precise. And, in the words of one priest, he encouraged the idea that "we ought to take care and time in preparing for the liturgy, and ensure we celebrate it with as much dignity as possible." His emphasis was upon reverence and reflection, which has been a healthy antidote to the 1960s style of Catholicism that encouraged feverish participation bordering on theatrics.

Nothing the pope proposed was new, but it could be called radical, trying to recapture some of the certainty and beauty that pervaded Catholicism before the reforming Vatican II. Inevitably, this upset some. Progressives felt that he was promoting a form of religion that belonged to a different century, that his firm belief in traditional moral theology threatened to distance the church from the people it was supposed to serve.

If that's true, it wasn't the pope's intent. Contrary to the general impression that he's favored a smaller, purer church, Benedict has actually done his best to expand its reach. The most visible sign was his engagement on Twitter. But he also reached out to the Eastern Orthodox Churches and spoke up for Christians persecuted in the Middle East.

In the United Kingdom, he encouraged married Anglican priests to defect. He has even opened up dialogue with Islam. During his tenure, we've also seen a new embrace of Catholicism in the realm of politics, from Paul Ryan's nomination to Tony Blair's high-profile conversion. And far from only talking about sex, Benedict expanded the number of sins to include things such as pollution. It's too often forgotten that in the 1960s he was considered a liberal who eschewed the clerical collar.

The divisions and controversies that occurred under Benedict's leadership had little to do with him personally and a lot more to do with the Catholic Church's difficult relationship with the modern world. As a Catholic convert, I've signed up to its positions on sexual ethics, but I appreciate that many millions have not. A balance has to be struck between the rights of believers and nonbelievers, between respect for tradition and the freedom to reject it.

As the world has struggled to strike that balance (consider the role that same-sex marriage and abortion played in the 2012 election) so the church has found itself forced to be a combatant in the great, ugly culture war. Benedict would rather it played the role of reconciler and healer of wounds, but at this moment in history that's not possible. Unfortunately, its alternative role as moral arbiter has been undermined by the pedophile scandal. Nothing has dogged this pontificate so much as the tragedy of child abuse, and it will continue to blot its reputation for decades to come.

For all these problems, my sense is that Benedict will be remembered as a thinker rather than a fighter. I have been so fortunate to become a Catholic at a moment of liturgical revival under a pope who can write a book as majestic and wise as his biography of Jesus. I've been lucky to know a pope with a sense of humor and a willingness to talk and engage.

If he wasn't what the modern world wanted -- if he wasn't prepared to bend every principle or rule to appease all the people all the time -- then that's the world's problem rather than his. Although he has attained one very modern distinction indeed. On Monday, he trended ahead of Justin Bieber on Twitter for at least an hour.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Timothy Stanley.

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Outgoing pope prepares for monk's life in Vatican

VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI, who has announced he will resign on February 28, will retire to a monastery tucked away inside the historic walls of the Holy See: so once the new pope is elected, there will be a former pontiff and his successor living in the Vatican.

Benedict, 85, who said he was standing down due to old age, will temporarily stay at the papal summer house at Castel Gandolfo near Rome.

During that time, the Mater Ecclesiae monastery building within the Vatican grounds -- an oasis of calm with its own vegetable garden and blooming flowerbeds -- will be renovated.

The Vatican said it expected his successor to be elected in time for Easter. It will be the first time in centuries that a pope and a former pope are alive at the same time.

"When the pope retires he will first move to Castel Gandolfo and then, when the restoration works are finished, he will move to the Vatican, to the monastery in the Vatican's gardens," spokesman Federico Lombardi said.

"I don't think he will be a recluse," Lombardi added.

"It's an unprecedented situation, we'll see how it goes... He has often said that he wanted to dedicate his old age to writing and study, and I imagine he will do so," Lombardi said.

The former monastery -- the only one within the Vatican's walls -- was built in 1992 after pope John Paul II said he wished to create a space to house those who dedicate their lives to contemplation.

Spread over three floors, the modern complex has 12 monastic cells upstairs, while the ground floor houses a kitchen, living room, library and chapel.

The cells are sparsely furnished: the only decorations to be seen are wooden crosses and a few paintings depicting scenes from religious life, according to the Vatican.

Benedict, a nature lover and a famously environmentally friendly pope who takes regular walks around the Vatican gardens, may spend his retirement days in the monastery flower garden, where two rare types of rose, the pink "Beatrice d'Este" and white "Giovanni Paolo II", are grown.

He will also have a role in what the future pope eats: peppers, tomatoes, courgettes and cabbages grown in the vegetable garden are traditionally served up in the pontiff's kitchen, as are the lemons and oranges grown on its trees.

A stone's throw from St. Peter's Basilica, the monastery has housed Benedictine nuns, Poor Clares -- an order founded by saints Clare of Assisi and Francis of Assisi -- and sisters from the order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, who moved out in November when the renovations began.

- AFP/ck

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Report details Osama bin Laden killer's 'nightmares'

By Jamie Gumbrecht, CNN

updated 7:06 PM EST, Mon February 11, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden has no military pension or health care, report says


• Journalist Phil Bronstein profiles man he calls the Shooter in the March issue of Esquire


• Bronstein: "He has nightmares about how he's going to support his family"

(CNN) -- He's the man who rolled into a bedroom in Abbottabad, Pakistan, raised his gun and shot Osama bin Laden three times in the forehead.

Nearly two years later, the SEAL Team Six member is a secret celebrity with nothing to show for the deed; no job, no pension, no recognition outside a small circle of colleagues.

Journalist Phil Bronstein profiled the man in the March issue of Esquire, calling him only the Shooter -- a husband, father and SEAL Team Six member who says he happened to pull the trigger on the notorious terrorist. It's a detailed account of how the raid unfolded, and what comes after for those involved. The headline splashed across the cover reads, "The man who killed Osama bin Laden ... is screwed."

In a statement the Navy responded: "We have no information to corroborate these new assertions. We take seriously the safety and security of our people, as well as our responsibility to assist sailors making a transition to civilian life. Without more information about this particular case, it would be difficult to determine the degree to which our transition programs succeeded."

"They spent, in the case of the shooter, 16 years doing exactly what they're trained to do, which is going out on these missions, deployment after deployment, killing people on a regular basis, " said Bronstein, executive chairman of the Center for Investigative Reporting. "They finally get to the point where they don't want to do that anymore."

Bronstein reported that the man left SEAL Team Six in September. His family's health care coverage ceased. Because he retired before the 20-year mark, he gets no pension.

The Shooter is judicious about the details of his story and hasn't been involved in dramatic books, movies or video games that will make millions for some. It's out of loyalty to his work and concern about his family's safety, Bronstein said. The shooter worries what could happen if his name went public, like Matt Bissonnette, the SEAL whose identity was revealed after he published the book "No Easy Day" using a pseudonym. CNN can't verify the account in Esquire, or the one in Bissonnette's book.

Bronstein reported that the Shooter was offered some witness protection, but no such program exists yet.

Home life is a struggle, too. The Shooter and his wife are separated, Bronstein wrote, although they live in the same house -- "on very friendly, even loving terms" -- to save money. He has done consulting work, Bronstein told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, but it's not clear how long it will last.

"They suddenly find themselves trying to translate into a civilian world that they're not used, and they haven't been used to for decades," Bronstein said. "I think he has nightmares about how he's going to support his family, and how he's going to feed his family."

Watch The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer weekdays at 4pm to 6pm ET and Saturdays at 6pm ET. For the latest from The Situation Room click here.

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Army Sgt. receives Medal of Honor

President Obama today awarded the Medal of Honor to Clinton Romesha, a former active duty Army staff sergeant, for his courageous actions during what Mr. Obama said has been described as "one of the most intense battles of the entire war of Afghanistan."

The Medal of Honor is the nation's highest military decoration and "reflects the gratitude of our entire country," Mr. Obama told Romesha from the East Room of the White House, where his entire troop was honored.

Play Video

Medal of Honor recipient on battle of Keating

As the section leader of his troop, at Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistan's Nuristan Province, Romesha led a fight against a nearly overwhelming Taliban attack. On Oct. 3, 2009, nearly 300 insurgents armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades surrounded the outpost, where 53 Americans were stationed.

"To those Americans down below, the fire was coming from every single direction, they'd never seen anything like it," Mr. Obama remarked.

In an interview with CBS News correspondent David Martin, Romesha described the fighting that day as "unreal" and "up close and personal." After receiving the medal today, Romesha said, "I'm grateful that some of the heroes of Combat Outpost Keating are here with us. Any one of them will tell you were were not going to be beat that day."

Eight U.S. soldiers were killed, and more than 20 Afghan security troops were captured. Romesha suffered his own injuries but nevertheless tended to his comrades and called in air strikes to attack the enemy. The air strikes gave some soldiers cover to reach an aid station, while Romesha retrieved the bodies of fallen soldiers.

Romesha is the fourth living recipient to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan. He specifically was serving as a Section Leader with Bravo Troop, 3d Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. He now works in oil field safety and lives in Minot, N.D., with his wife and three children.

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Benedict XVI First Pope to Resign in 600 Years

Pope Benedict XVI's unexpected announcement today that he will step down for health reasons makes him the first pontiff to resign in nearly 600 years, even catching the Vatican by surprise and setting off a chain reaction that will end with a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.

"My first reaction was this is, it's very startling," Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, said. "I was totally unprepared for it. The second reaction was we're going to have to now think a little differently. This will be the first time in modern history that we've had a pope resign. How do we work with all of that?"

Announcing his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals, Benedict, 85, said he will resign Feb. 28, explaining that his role requires "both strength of mind and body."

FULL COVERAGE: Pope Benedict XVI Resignation

"After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry," he said. "I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only by words and deeds but no less with prayer and suffering."

Pope Benedict XVI was the oldest pope to be elected at age 78 on April 19, 2005. He was the first German pope since the 11th century and his reign will rank as one of the shortest in history at seven years, 10 months and three days.

RELATED: Pope Benedict XVI Resigns: The Statement

The last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415.

Vatican officials said they've noticed that he has been getting weaker, while Benedict said he is aware of the significance of his decision and made it freely.

Pope Benedict XVI Resignation: Who Will Be Next? Watch Video

Pope Benedict XVI Never Aspired to Be Pope: Historian

Vatican Communications Director Greg Burke told ABC News that he was surprised but not shocked by the announcement, and cited an interview in which Benedict said a pope not only could resign, but should resign, if necessary.

"[Pope Benedict] is slowing a bit, and there's nothing immediately serious or grave," Burke said. "He has an older brother. He just thought the demands of the job were too much for his physical well being."

INTERACTIVE: Key Dates in the Life of Pope Benedict XVI

Benedict's brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, had shared his concerns about the pope's health in September 2011, telling Germany's Bunte magazine that he should resign if health issues made the work impossible. More recently, Ratzinger has apparently cited his brother's difficulty in walking and his age, saying that Benedict had been advised by his doctor to cease transatlantic trips and that he had been considering stepping down for months, according to the German DPA news agency.

Among other ailments, the pope reportedly suffers from arthritis and arthrosis -- a debilitating joint-degeneration condition -- and his declining health drew attention about a year ago when he used a cane at the airport on his way to a trip to Mexico and Cuba.

Benedict has been a less charismatic leader than his predecessor, John Paul II, but tending to the world's roughly 1 billion Catholics still requires stamina Benedict seems to believe he now lacks.

PHOTOS: Pope Benedict XVI Through the Years

"Obviously, it's a great surprise for the whole church, for everyone in the Vatican and I think for the whole Catholic world," the Rev. John Wauck, a U.S. priest of the Opus Dei, told "Good Morning America" today. "But, at the same time, it's not completely surprising given what the pope had already written about the possibility of resigning.

"It's clear in terms of his mental capacity he's in excellent shape, he's very sharp, and so when he says he's making this official with whole freedom, it's clear that that's the case, that makes one believe that this is an act taken out of a sense of responsibility and love for the church."

It is a road that leads back to the 1930s.

Ratzinger started seminary studies in 1939 at the age of 12. In his memoirs, he wrote of being enrolled in Hitler's Nazi youth movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941, when membership was compulsory. In 1943, he was drafted into a Nazi anti-aircraft unit in Munich. He says he was soon let out because he was a priest in training.

He returned home only to find an army draft notice waiting for him in the fall of 1944.

As World War II came to an end, the 18-year-old Ratzinger deserted the army. In May 1945, U.S. troops arrived in his town and he was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.

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What beats Grammy? Immortality

Legends beyond their own time

Legends beyond their own time

Legends beyond their own time

Legends beyond their own time

Legends beyond their own time

Legends beyond their own time

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Bob Greene: Grammy nominated acts should remember the real prize comes later in life


• He says at a hotel he ran into a group of singing stars from an earlier era, in town for a show


• He says the world of post-fame touring less glamorous for acts, but meaningful


• Greene: Acts grow old, but their hits never will and to fans, the songs are time-machine

Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose 25 books include "When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams"; "Late Edition: A Love Story"; and "Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen."

(CNN) -- Memo to Carly Rae Jepsen, Frank Ocean, Hunter Hayes, Mumford & Sons, Miguel, the Alabama Shakes and all the other young singers and bands who are nominated for Sunday night's Grammy Awards:

Your real prize -- the most valuable and sustaining award of all -- may not become evident to you until 30 or so years have passed.

You will be much older.

But -- if you are lucky -- you will still get to be out on the road making music.

Bob Greene

Many of Sunday's Grammy nominees are enjoying the first wave of big success. It is understandable if they take for granted the packed concert venues and eye-popping paychecks.

Those may go away -- the newness of fame, the sold-out houses, the big money.

But the joy of being allowed to do what they do will go on.

I've been doing some work while staying at a small hotel off a highway in southwestern Florida. One winter day I was reading out on the pool deck, and there were some other people sitting around talking.

They weren't young, by anyone's definition. They did not seem like conventional businessmen or businesswomen on the road, or like retirees. There was a sense of nascent energy and contented anticipation in their bearing, of something good waiting for them straight ahead. A look completely devoid of grimness or fretfulness, an afternoon look that said the best part of the day was still to come.

I would almost have bet what line of work they were in. I'd seen that look before, many times.

I could hear them talking.

Yep.

The Tokens ("The Lion Sleeps Tonight," a No. 1 hit in 1961).

Little Peggy March ("I Will Follow Him," a No. 1 hit in 1963).

Little Anthony and the Imperials ("Tears on My Pillow," a top 10 hit in 1958).

Major singing stars from an earlier era of popular music, in town for a multi-act show that evening.

It is the one sales job worth yearning for -- carrying that battered sample case of memorable music around the country, to unpack in front of a different appreciative audience every night.

It's quite a world. I was fortunate enough to learn its ins and outs during the 15 deliriously unlikely years I spent touring the United States singing backup with Jan and Dean ("Surf City," a No. 1 hit in 1963) and all the other great performers with whom we shared stages and dressing rooms and backstage buffets:

Chuck Berry, Martha and the Vandellas, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, the Everly Brothers, James Brown, Lesley Gore, Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon, the Kingsmen, the Drifters, Fabian, the Coasters, Little Eva, the Ventures, Sam the Sham. ...

Jukebox names whose fame was once as fresh and electric as that now being savored by Sunday's young Grammy nominees.

Decades after that fame is new, the road may not be quite as glamorous, the crowds may not be quite as large. The hours of killing time before riding over to the hall, the putrid vending-machine meals on the run, the way-too-early-in-the-morning vans to the airport -- the dreary parts all become more than worth it when, for an hour or so, the singers can once again personally deliver a bit of happiness to the audiences who still adore their music.

Greene: Super Bowl ad revives iconic voice

As the years go by, the whole thing may grow complicated -- band members come and go, they fight and feud, some quit, some die. There are times when it seems you can't tell the players without a scorecard -- the Tokens at the highway hotel were, technically and contractually, Jay Siegel's Tokens (you don't want to know the details). One of their singers (not Jay Siegel -- Jay Traynor) was once Jay of Jay and the Americans, a group that itself is still out on the road in a different configuration with a different Jay (you don't want to know).

But overriding all of this is a splendid truism:

Sometimes, if you have one big hit, it can take care of you for the rest of your life. It can be your life.

Sunday's young Grammy nominees may not imagine, 30 years down the line, still being on tour. But they -- the fortunate ones -- will come to learn something:

They will grow old, but their hits never will -- once people first fall in love with those songs, the songs will mean something powerful and evocative to them for the rest of their lives.

And as long as there are fairground grandstands on summer nights, as long as there are small-town ballparks with stages where the pitcher's mound should be, the singers will get to keep delivering the goods.

That is the hopeful news waiting, off in the distance, for those who will win Grammys Sunday, and for those who won't be chosen.

On the morning after that pool-deck encounter in Florida I headed out for a walk, and in the parking lot of the hotel I saw one of the Tokens loading his stage clothes into his car.

His license plate read:

SHE CRYD

I said to him:

"You sing lead on 'She Cried,' right?"

"Every night," he said, and drove off toward the next show.

The next show.

That's the prize.

That's the trophy, right there.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.

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