Friday, February 20, 2015

A wild and old guy

So, I've been away. I haven't written in a week. I don't know why other than I'm old.

I figured this out this week.

Here's my evidence. My wife is gone for a week to New York City. I've been batchlering it. I have gone crazzzzzyyyyy. I bought whole milk the other night. So I could have Frosted Flakes. Which I've had at more than breakfast. There. Crzzzzaaayyyy.

I got a piece of mail from the Greenwood Funeral Home. I did this because I was born before 1955. It tells me that I was born before cable TV, personal computers, the Internet, moon landings and credit cards. I was born before McDonald's and Disneyland, much less Disney World was opened. I remember when Elvis and Chuck Berry and the Platters and Bill Haley and the Comets were creating this thing they called Rock and Roll. I was born before eight tracks. There. I'm old. I got it. So they tell me to save my family from making decisions at the most difficult time of their life, and pay for it in monthly payments and I figure that I will probably do that.

I'm old. I figured it out this week when my wife was gone and I fell asleep with the TV on at 8:30 in my recliner. Old.

Old as the hills from which my strength comes.
Old as someone who once held a book in my hand and checked it out from the library and was quite happy to do so. Or on occasion, I checked out several books at a time from the mobile library. I spent hours in the Meridian (Miss.) public library. I was partial to the crime section or the missing persons section or certain sections of the fiction departments. I spent time almost every day there, and would eventually have in my house one of its fans.

Oh, I'm old enough to have lived without air conditioning. With three channels. Without color TV for years. I'm old enough to remember Lassie as my favorite program both in black and white and later with color and Timmie. I'm old enough to remember the beginning of Gunsmoke, to have had a Palladin gun and holster set, to have played war in the yard with friends.

Or went to the movie every day for less than a dollar. Or played ball with just three or four persons. Or have believe in the Bible as written and not improved on.

I'm old. I know this because everything in changing and I'm not a part of it any longer. I'm old because I can't shake colds or the flu and I can't quit coughing, and I can't imagine quickly enough.

I'm old.

My wife is out of town, living it up in Central Park and in Times Square and I think I'll go for ice cream.

Just a wild and crazzzzzzyyyyy guy. That's me.

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