Reflections on the Subject of Aging

[Donna D.]

In our 80's, Rosie and I live by the rules of the elderly. If the toothbrush is wet, you have cleaned your teeth. If the bedside radio is warm in the morning, you left it on all night. If you are wearing one brown and one black shoe, quite probably you have a pair just like it in the closet.

Rosie has aged some in the past year and now seems like a woman in her 40s. She deplores with me the miscreant who regularly enters our house in the middle of the night and squeezes the toothpaste tube in the middle and then departs. As for me, I am as bright as can be expected, remembering the friend who told me years ago "If your IQ ever breaks 100, sell!"

Like most elderly people, we spend happy hours in front of the TV set. We rarely turn it on, of course. I walk with a slight straddle hoping people will think I just got off a horse. I considered carrying a riding crop but gave it up...too ostentatious. I stagger when I walk and small boys follow me, making bets on which way I'll go next. This upsets me; children shouldn't gamble.

On my daily excursions, I greet everyone punctiliously, including headrests in empty parked cars.

Dignified friends seem surprised when I greet them with a breezy Hi!" They don't realize I haven't enough breath for some huge two-syllable word of greeting.

When we are old, the young are kinder to us, and we are kinder to each other. There is a sunset glow that irradiates our faces and is reflected on the faces of those around us. But it is still sunset.

[Cam A]

El and Bill are an inspiration at:Halcyon Days

Not from successful love alone,
Nor wealth, nor honor'd middle age, nor victories of politics or war;
But as life wanes, and all the turbulent passions calm,
As gorgeous, vapory, silent hues cover the evening sky,

As softness, fullness, rest, suffuse the frame, like fresher, balmier air,
As the days take on a mellower light, and the apple at last hangs really finish'd and indolent-ripe on the tree,
Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of all!
The brooding and blissful halcyon days!

Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman, 1891

[Frederick L. Simson]

I love this poem because it reminds me of my Mother, who lived by it's message even before there was a "Red Hat Society".

Warning
by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman <a href="http://www.redhatsociety.com/" target="_blank">I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go</a>, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise _(sic) a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

[Dr. Horace Edward Hall II]

Thank You Cam A For The Verse. Walt Whitman Is Was A Man In Tune With Life. l891 Would Have Been At The End Of His Life (1819-1892). He's Always Been One Of My Favorite Poets/Writers.



Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman, 1891 (probably Published Date of LoG And Not Date Verse Written).