Whittling Away with Dick Brooks - A Ripe Old Age

All in all, I’m pretty comfortable with myself and my life.  I had the wisdom to pick a lovely, talented life partner who was willing to marry below her status.  We have a comfortable old home overlooking the river, a wonderful family, good friends and neighbors and the sweetest dog ever.  I have reached a ripe old age, not bad for a country boy who wasn’t supposed to make it to thirty.  Looking back over the many careers I’ve had and loved and the many adventures that I’ve shared with so many wonderful people, I realize that they all have combined to make me what I am today. An unemployed orphan!  As for having reached a ripe old age, I have a dish on the kitchen table with three plums in it.  They have reached the totally ripe stage, full of sweetness and so juicy you have to bend over to eat them, if I don’t eat them soon, in a couple of days they will be rotten.  I figure that in a year or two, I’m going to start looking for fruit flies that are following me.  I’m still active enough to be useful but I’m spending more and more time in my recliner.  Rest periods between active times are getting longer and more frequent and I fear that the day will come when The Queen will dust me along with the rest of the family room furniture.  As with all age groups, seniors tend to group with their own kind. 

As a young man, I belonged to several car clubs, we would gather monthly and discuss the latest speed equipment.  I remember being especially proud of a set of chrome headers I had installed on my V8 powered Vega.  Now a lot of the same guys gather at the Senior Citizen Center but now the main topic centers around new body parts, I’m pretty proud of my new stainless steel hip.  The guys used to give directions using bars as highlights as in “Go down to the Bent Elbow, turn left and go straight until you get to The Slosh and Slurp”.  Now the directions are, “ Turn right at The Medical Center, go three  blocks and make a left at the Urologist, go past the Hearing Aid Center and The Bone and Joint Center is another couple of blocks”.  Senior discounts are another popular topic of discussion along with toilets.  Clean rest rooms and their location are of interest and importance to my age group.  I pay attention to any new Porta-Potties that may have appeared on my daily route.  I do find that some small things can bring a smile to my lips and sometimes to my heart.  Pictures on Face Book of small children, puppies or kittens are the ones that bring the most warm fuzzies into my day.  I have a special warm spot in my heart for the young man at the grocery store the other day who when I placed a six pack of adult beverages on his conveyor belt asked me for identification with a perfectly straight face, the first time I’ve been proofed in fifty years.  It made my day.

Thought for the week—He started to sing as he tackled the thing that couldn’t be done, and he did it.  –Edgar A. Guest                                                   

Until next week, may you and yours be happy and well 

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