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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWise Words On Aging
My best friend of 50 years this year sent me this. Ha, we even bought a Rolling Stones record at K-Mart in Costa Mesa for $3.33 after pooling our baby sitting money. She wanted to buy Herman's Hermits and I said the Stones looked interesting - I won that discussion. We even had a black bra that we shared for "special" dates.
We went to see the Stones in 1964 on their first tour of the US (my Dad drove us - he forever blamed all the problems of the world on the Beatles). It truly was a great time to grow up on so many levels, from the music to politics. Anyway, I was quite moved by this:
Wise Words On Aging
As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself,
and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend.
I have seen too many dear friends leave this
world, too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes
with aging.
Whose business is it, if I choose to read, or
play, on the computer, until 4 AM, or sleep until noon? I will dance
with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 50, 60 &70's, and if I,
at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love, I will.
I will walk the beach, in a swim suit that is
stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves, with
abandon, if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the hipster
set. They, too, will get old.
I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again,
some of life is just as well forgotten. And, I eventually remember
the important things.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
newfie11
(8,159 posts)Except for the arthritis limiting things, I am totally enjoying being a senior.
Lugnut
(9,791 posts)Isn't it lovely? My finger joints look like knobs. My mother had arthritis and my body is statting to resemble hers.
JEFF9K
(1,935 posts)... looked in old newpapers from the 1950s and 1960s. Hardly the "good old days." Lots of traffic deaths. Lots of shooting deaths. Much worse than today. Viet Nam war deaths, strict school dress codes, short hair and long skirts mandatory ...
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)that reported the death of my mother in a car wreck on September 11. On the same page is a story about a teenage boy who murdered his father. It really wasn't all sunshine and flowers in the '50s.
Captain Stern
(2,201 posts)Although not in the same vein, one of my favorite quotes about aging is by Muhammad Ali:
"The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)cilla4progress
(24,766 posts)Thank you.
58 here. I love this poem. I hope there will be opportunities to read more!
840high
(17,196 posts)Cha
(297,650 posts)play, on the computer, until 4 AM, or sleep until noon? I will dance
with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 50, 60 &70's, and if I,
at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love, I will." Bam!
Fits me to T Mahalo, mimi~
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)My best friend from 8th grade recently got back in touch.
Very soon, I will turn 56.
What a long strange trip it's been!!
NBachers
(17,136 posts)From a guy born in 1949.
Sure wish we'd shared one of those "special" dates together.
mimi85
(1,805 posts)One of my favorites!
I have a feeling our date would have been special as well. I'll have to post a picture, I'm still hanging in there in the looks dept. Wish I could say the same for my health"
Grammy23
(5,813 posts)I remember when we lived in Ft. Worth, TX (1963 to 65) going out for a Sunday drive with my parents. I was a teenager and madly in love with the Beatles. Paul, in particular, floated my boat!! My best friend and I bought "Beatle" magazines and would look at them...mostly photographs....from cover to cover. I literally begged my father to stop at a record store so I could buy Meet the Beatles. I think I paid about $2.98 for it and my father almost had a cow when he realized how much I had paid for it. When we got home I was ready to listen to it but my dad had other plans for our TV/radio/record player combination. He watched golf while I pouted in my room staring at the album and reading every word on it and the liner notes. Pure torture for a 14 year old. Eventully I got to listen to my album but Daddy loved teasing me about how it "all sounded alike". He was a musical snob and thought the only music worth your time was classical.
Lots of water has gone under the bridge since then. I recently came across that album and gave it to my 15 year old grandson who is a huge Beatle fan. One of the first songs he learned to play on his guitar was "Blackbird" .... singing in the dead of night. And he surprised me with it when he learned how to play it all the way through. What a treat.
Never forget: Aging should not be viewed with dread. It is a privilege denied to many.
NBachers
(17,136 posts)word on the Meet the Beatles album . . . we all remember record albums as something to read and hold and listen to and explore with . . . someone gets a new album and brings it over and puts it on and everyone sits and listens to the whole thing. What a life, hey Grammy? I can honestly say that we've had the best soundtrack a life could ever have.
Your story makes me remember this: A friend and I traveled from Rochester NY to Toronto to see The Beatles back in '66. We bussed over, but had enough money to fly back in an old Mohawk Airlines DC-3 over Lake Ontario.
We'd spent lots of time exploring all the Mod clothing shops along Toronto's main district. It was just like shopping on Carnaby Street. I ended up buying three shirts that, I thought, made me look like someone on a Rolling Stones album cover. They cost all of seven bucks apiece.
My dad picked us up at the airport and drove us back home. When he found out I'd spent *gasp* $21.00 for three shirts, he started yelling and yelling at me. I didn't care. I had my Carnaby Street shirts to wear in school and out to the local music venues.
And you know what? I'm happier in my life now than I've been at any other point in my life.
Keep on dancin' and a'prancin'
calimary
(81,461 posts)Saw the Beatles twice, first in Las Vegas and the next year at the Hollywood Bowl. We were all screaming too loudly to hear ANYTHING they did, but it didn't matter. When we were in Vegas, we stayed at the same hotel they did (the Sahara), and were a few floors beneath theirs. We tried to get up to their floor in the elevator, and when the elevator doors opened, all you saw were security guards and crowds of screaming girls packed into the hallways. You couldn't even exit the elevator because of the security and the pressure of all the bodies coming at you. Just nuts! After the Beatles checked out, my friend who'd come with me, and I, went up to that same floor again and we COULD get out of the elevator and wander down the halls. And because we knew they smoked cigarettes, we went through every ashtray mounted along the wall in the hall and collected all the cigarette butts - just on the bare chance that one of them had touched "those" lips!
Criminy! What I did for Beatles... Pouring over every fan magazine and liner note of every album and every one of the "50 Intimate Pix" in such teenybopper magazines as Dig and Tiger Beat and 16. 16 Magazine had really clever covers as I recall. Always a collage with scene that had been produced by some graphic artist on staff, and photos of all the stars' heads had been cut out and positioned on the heads of the cartoony figures in it. So you'd have a scene of maybe a cabin by the lake and a dock with a boat tied to it and you'd see these little figures either fishing or climbing into the boat or in the water already or running down toward the dock. I remember that one well: it had Paul on the dock in action with a fishing rod, and it was drawn such that he had hooked the back of Jane Asher's shirt and was reeling her in. And I think Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits or George Harrison was depicted in the water already. GREAT stuff! Still remember the editor's name: Gloria Stavers. I remember wanting her job!
I remember at one point counting every Beatles photo I had and logging it all faithfully in a notebook. Those were the days...
Aristus
(66,462 posts)Battling the Bulge is getting more and more difficult every year.
Someday, I won't care anymore. But right now, it's too easy to remember the person I was after I discovered bodybuilding. Those were the days...
MuseRider
(34,119 posts)How did that happen? 60! Don't feel like I always thought a 60 year old would feel.
A little forgetful yes, a little slower than I once was but not by much.
I will do as I please now, I actually get really resentful if I have too much to do outside of taking care of my farm. I don't care to go into town and do stuff, I have plenty here and for once in my long life I do not care how anyone else views that!
There is great joy in growing older I think. I am trying every day to see it more that way than the way we usually approach old age, with fear and or sorrow. Why feel that way? Joy is the only way to go
dchill
(38,532 posts)Wait until you really get old! JK - I'm only 62.
dchill
(38,532 posts)I wish! "There's entirely too much peace and love going on around here!"
spanone
(135,873 posts)Wolf Frankula
(3,601 posts)Some saws from me.
Do it now, do it today. There is no next time and someday never comes.
Life is too short to drink bad beer.
The minute you tell somebody that you're 'older and wiser', you've just marked yourself out as a fool.
Don't sweat the small shit. Most of it is small shit.
Keep active. I don't mean work all your life (Though I'll probably have to. Thanks Monkey Bush.) I mean have always something important (to you) to do.
Wolf
AuntFester
(57 posts)My boobs, however, are now more like bibs.
I was going to use a ROFL smilie, but if I got down to roll on the floor, I'd need to call 911.
mimi85
(1,805 posts)At least we still have our sense of humor!
I'll never forget me dear Nana Peg, who died at 92, saying she still felt like 17 until she looked in the mirror. I also remember her at one Xmas when she was in a wheel chair starting to cry because she hadn't been able to go shopping for presents. We hopefully consoled her by saying that just having her there was a present in itself. She was truly an inspiration and I'll miss her forever!
calimary
(81,461 posts)Glad you're here! We can start laughing at ourselves more as we age. A girlfriend of mine, who's my age too, was joking that she has a couple of familiar "friend" hairs she has to keep plucking out of her chin now. She's named 'em - Spike, and Barb! For now, at least, I don't have the kind of saggy neck that forces me to hide every Thanksgiving, but...
mimi85
(1,805 posts)Haha, too funny! My BF went to get her boobs lifted when she was in her late 40s and the doctor said there wasn't enough to lift! So she ended up with big ones. So much for sharing the black bra. Darn, should've had mine done when I was younger. Not really, at least they won't be hanging down by my belt when I'm 65 (which will happen next year). Yikes, how time flies!
I have the same wonderful husband I married when I just turned 18 and not only has he been through me in sickness and in health, we have the gift of a beautiful daughter (which is why I got married so young - picked a good man though) and three great grandkids. My first grandson was born when I was 35! Ouch, my friends were still having little ones.
Marriage can be tough and takes a whole lot of compromise. We've had some rough years back in the day, but will celebrate our 46th wedding anniversary on New Year's Eve. Ha, my husband claimed me on his taxes for that year and we were only married 7 hours out of 1967. Now that REALLY pissed my Dad off!
Tikki
(14,559 posts)Congratulations you two.
The Tikkis
Tikki
(14,559 posts)mosh pit that formed up front
but there were gray and bald and purple hair down there
and even though
it was smaller and not as aggressive as, let's say, 1980..it looked amazing.
The Tikkis
southerncrone
(5,506 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)RebelOne
(30,947 posts)I do not want to be this old, but I am happy to have made it this far. When I complained to my daughter that I hate getting old, she said that it is better than the alternative.
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)... but, aren't we aging well... only 10 pounds heavier than when we were 21 ...
... and now, every morning I awake, greet the sun, and think - It's a Gift
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous
Almost, at times, the Fool.
I grow old . . . I grow old . . .
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think they will sing to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)except the music part. I'm sick to death of that old stuff.