Speaking Of Generations

A couple posts back I wrote about young people and the fun evening they provided for some of us seniors. This week I was involved in more generational interaction.

A gal pal of mine who is same age I am remembered an older friend mentioning at my birthday party in February that she would like to go shopping for clothes. Her family members are so busy they aren't able to take that much time for a half day shopping trip. She spoke wistfully of how she pictured it being fun to see the new styles and shops and that it had been a very long time since she wanted new clothes.

So the friend my age told her she would take her shopping sometime. And we did.

Getting Ready

There will be a super duper garage sale at a large ballroom in a nearby town at the end of this month.  Last year was my first time at that sale and it was the largest garage sale I had ever seen. Every available space in that gigantic place was utilized to show all the items donated. I bought some things for my new little apartment and had a great time seeing all the items on display.

I am in the process of going through my things and will be donating a truck load of things to this sale. Not only will it be a relief to have more room in the closets, it will be a blessing to donate the things to a worthy cause. I will take some pictures to show you.

March 2013

This is interesting.  Five Sundays in one month.

Some Young People Give Me Hope

One evening this week a group of us went to a nearby town for an evening of fun at the senior center. The event was hosted by the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) students at the schools in that town. There are 65 students in that group, and about twenty of them were on hand to cater to us seniors all evening.

They walked in carrying bags of prizes, bags and bags of prizes, which they displayed on a long table. There were gift certificates from Arby's, McDonalds, local restaurants and gas stations as well as bags of candy and candy bars and many other items of interest to us seniors.

A huge platter of meat and cheese and boxes and boxes of crackers and cookies were set out and we served ourselves to the meats, which were cut into squares. I had never seen such a large platter of meat and cheese, it was at least two feet high. The teens started popping popcorn and brought around bowls of popcorn and kept the bowls full all evening. They continually filled our cups of beverages and kept piling on more meat and cheese.

The young people were young and energetic and were friendly and kind and fun to all the seniors. One of the teens started calling out bingo numbers and the games began. We all won several times so we went home at the end of the event with bags of prizes. One of my friends went home with several gift packs of bath products from Bath and Body Works as well as two $10 gift certificates for car gas.

This type of interaction with teens and seniors was new to me and it warmed my heart to overfilling. I will definitely attend this event next year.

Normal

Who is qualified to say what is normal. That is not a question, it is more of a statement. How do we know that the person deciding what is normal is a "normal" person himself or herself. See what I mean? Maybe we would all just breathe easier if we swipe the word "normal" from the dictionary.

My Epitaph

Living in a small community as I do and hanging out with women who are seniors like I am is teaching me to prepare for the last part of life. Death is not something to fear or waste precious time dreading; it is just inevitable. 

My mother passed away almost four months ago at age 91. She and I talked often about the process of taking a last breath and guessing at what comes next. We reasoned that since no one had actually come back to tell us all what to expect, we are only able to imagine with our puny earthly minds how it will be after we discard the baggage of bodies. 

Some of my closest friends are twenty years older than I am. A few friends have passed away and I watch with interest how the families and friends celebrate their lives and honor their existence.

I have no family within a thousand miles of me. Nothing I own is of interest to any of my children, having given each of them anything they would want years ago. I am in the process of planning and pre-paying for the disposal of my body and possessions when it is necessary. There is nothing wrong with being prepared; in fact, it is irresponsible (in my opinion) to leave the final decisions and hassle to someone else. 

If there is one thing that people will remember about me, I would like it to be that I was a survivor, that I believed I could do anything and proceeded to accomplish it. The mistakes made along the way were just learning tools. 

Standing In Check Out Line

A friend sent this email to me. Maybe you have already seen it.

A Retiree's Last Trip To Wal-Mart:

Yesterday I was at my local Wal-Mart buying a large bag of Purina dog chow for my loyal pet, Jake the Wonder Dog, and while in the check out line a woman behind me asked if I had a dog.

What did she think I had, an elephant?

Because I am retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her no,  I didn't have a dog, I was starting the Purina Diet again. I added that I probably shouldn't because I ended up in the hospital last time, but that I had lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices
and IVs in both arms. I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete and it works well so I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in line was enthralled with my story.)

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me. I told her no, I stopped to pee on a fire hydrant and a car hit me. 

I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard. 

Wal-Mart won't let me shop there anymore.

Impromptu

Impromptu get-togethers can turn out to be some of the best times. A group of us ended up at a gal's house for a card game and we had not been together as a group before. We found we enjoyed each other's company and there was much laughter and a great time.

Learning to try new things, and spend time with people who are new to me is turning out to be enjoyable and uplifting. If I am lifted up any more, I will be floating!

Be good to yourself, do something spontaneous, last minute,.

 Playing outside made me creative and imaginative when I was growing up. I remember dressing up my cat and playing house. Funny thing to call it, but that is what we called it back then. Playing house didn't include cleaning the house, it was only pretending to be grown up, being the mom. We also played school. Why we wanted to play school when we were already attending school is a mystery, maybe it was more fun playing school than the actual hours at school. More children today are attached to their electronic devices, which is fine, but they may be missing out on using their minds to write a play and get the neighborhood kids to perform and sing. Playing baseball for kids now is in structured leagues, whereas we just called around and found some kids to have enough for two teams and played baseball.

Gorilla Reunion