Ya gotta appreciate old folks….. Old folks is relative - ‘pending on how old you are yourself… A bit ago at work, a nifty young gal talked about admonishing her boyfriend because he’d gotten into to a physical tiff with an “elderly gentleman”… Elderly turned out to be “50-ish.”
I think all the time about “what ever happened to so-and-so?”… Tooka drive today… It’s Sunday.. That’s what Sundays are for… but again, at $3.29/gallon, it was a short drive… If you’re in my age range (54) - the parents of friends are becoming less and less populated on our planet. Teachers, town-eccentrics, entrepreneurs, the ole mailman, many - are no longer in sight… Sad… Life. Thoughts like this, yes while sad, again - make one suckup and appreciate every waking day/hour/minute… I drove past one of my old boss's house, and onea my old coach's house. Shoulda stopped. Didn't - but they'll never ever leave my brain.
Watching TV the other night… lo and behold Jack Lallane comes on (age 90-something) WITH his wife… STILL looking like he could literally beat the watoosie outta me… I’d read at age 70 (once again handcuffed and shackled) Jack fought strong winds and currents as he swam 1.5 miles while towing 70 boats with 70 people from the Queens Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary.. I remember eons ago as a kid watching my mother exercise to his TV exercise show - he was doing facial exercises… I laughed and said “Hey, he looks JUST like a monkey” and I’ll be durned if not the very next second he exclaimed “Hey kid, did you just call me a monkey?” No wonder, he’s got super human talents!
Aging is special - as are the aged. Friend I just met online - had some admitted difficulties growing up with her father - now says “at 89, he’s the smartest man I know - I don’t know what I’ll do when he's gone."
I hope my cousin doesn’t shoot me.. But copying a recent email from her regarding her 89 yr old mother (my aunt): “I talked to my mom this afternoon, and she said she'd decided it was time for a change. So, she dug out all the landscaping in the front of her house (how ,I can't imagine as most has been there for the life of the house), then went to a nursery to pick out some new stuff. She wanted to know what I thought. I told her I thought she was nuts digging all that up, and her answer was, "I mean about the shrubs I've chosen. I knew what you'd say about the other; that's why I told you after I did it." She also said she thought she might sleep well tonight.”
And anudder, in response to the above, from yet another cousin on her 86 year old mother: “I asked her the other night at dinner in a restaurant, with the waitress at our table, if Daddy had every told her "no" to something she said she wanted. Her reply, after thinking a bit................."yes, SEX". I have my doubts on that one, but it was funny.”
And finally my own added diddie regarding my own father, I think 77 at the time: “I'd like to share one about my pa... As his Parkinsons progressed - it was getting more and more difficult for him to get up out of a chair - and back down into it... thus... we got him one of those "lift" chairs... The representative from the manufacturer accompanied delivery of the chair to dad's house... gave a 30-40 minute demonstration on the buttons, features - let dad try it a few times... it really DID make it easier for him....
One of the very last features the rep pointed out... "Oh, and it comes with a massager.."
With absolutely no hesitation, dad asked "Does she spend the night?"
I, with baited anticipation of “can’t wait” paybacks - longingly look forward to my hoped geriatric years. We all could learn/help/be rewarding AND rewarded by: If ya ain’t seen an older person that touched your life and you know they’re still here - find ‘em. Write ‘em. Call ‘em.
Love, until the day I pee my pants and forget my name, Victurd.
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