Historical June 1996 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
One of the more pleasant things about aging, other than that is beats the alternative, is experiencing getting older and appreciating the evolution.
I don’t consider myself old yet, I’m only 5-0, after all, but I can see how age has changed me. At times it’s. sort of fun to step out of myself and see how I’m different than I used to be. Unfortunately, not better; different. I’m aware of how important the weather is to me these days.
For heaven’s sake, I actually make a point of listening to the weather forecast on the evening news!
As a kid, I don’t remember thinking much about the weather. Oh, like all kids, I always wanted snow. (I still do for that matter; age does not equal maturity.) And I can remember the heat being onerous when we were playing football. Other than that, the weather was just sort of, you know, there. You did your thing regardless of the weather. Today, as a youngish middle-aged man, I still do my thing regardless of the weather, but the temperature, humidity, wind, and sun matter to me. Nice weather has become awfully important. At this time of year, in particular, it’s refreshing to see the sun come up earlier and stay later and the weather be pleasant enough so that I can sit on the porch and smoke a ceegar while I listen to KWMU. Nice temperatures make big problems slightly smaller. Small things, the insignificant vagaries of life, cause me to stop and reflect and smile.
For example, Isaac Bruce is a receiver for the St. Louis Rams. Whenever he catches the football at a home game, thousands of fans scream BEERUUUUUUUUUUUUUUOCOCE in unison. Well, at one of the games last year, the first half ended and I ordered my brautwusrt and light beer, settling back to see what halftime activity was corning.
The announcer told us that the entertainment was an act featuring a dog doing frisbee stunts. “Big deal,” thought, “my dogs catch dog cookies and pieces of banana.” Boy, was I wrong. No sooner had the announcer finished the introduction when some guy comes sprinting out of the stands, carrying a handful of frisbees, followed by a romping dog.
He stops and throws a frisbee high, way high, into the air, it soars across the field, followed by the dog.
As the frisbee starts to descend from the sky, it begins to curve. Yet the dog follows it, gaining speed and closing in. At, the last second, the dog jumps eight to ten feet into the air and snatches the frisbee in its mouth just before it hits the ground. Before I can have time to appreciate the athleticism of the dog and the hours of training that were represented by this feat, the crowd begins to yell, spontaneously, BRRRUUUUUUUJUUUUUUCOCCO As good as the dog was, I enjoyed• the thousands responding, without cue, even more.
I enjoy the precociousness of kids, too.
The other day at work, I was sitting in a classroom, doing an observation.
There was a student, seven or eight years old, sitting apart from the group. At one point I asked him why he was by himself. Looking up from his work, he replied, matter-of-factly, “Oh, I get distracted easily and find it more productive to be by myself.” Oh. That’s my problem, even today, but I’m not smart enough to isolate myself! Last month we had visitors from Liberal, Kansas visiting my school. I, thinking myself ever so clever, said that I suspected their town was founded in the 1860’s or 1870’s and that the name derived from an abolitionist sentiment in the community. Wrong.
They told me that their town was founded in 1888.
It turns out that their part of the state is extraordinarily dry, and farmers used to charge travelers heading west to use their wells to get water.
But a farmer who owned land where their town is today, they continued, gave the water away for free. Because of his relaxed attitudes toward availability of the water, the town was named Liberal!
I chuckled at hearing this, feeling good about being alive. And a friend has a new baby, an adopted child from China.
All children are wonderful, and all new mothers are beautiful, but I have to think how special this relationship is. Not only are the parents delighted, as are all new parents, this child has a new opportunity for life.
She has a chance to grow up in a country where she can be whatever she wants to be. Life won’t be easy, but her only limitations will be those that she accepts. She’s lucky to be living here, her parents are lucky to have her, and her birth parents, I hope, somehow know that she is taken care of.
As I said, increased age does not equal increased, maturity, so as I type this, background music is provided by the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, and Roy Orbison. [ still open the paper to the sports page and eat. dessert first, just in case I’ll get filled up quickly. But, to be fair, age has had a sobering effect on me. No longer do I hope to play professional football, and I am finally able to discuss, with some objectivity, the limitations of Winston Churchill.
I reflect a bit more these days, stopping to appreciate life’s intricacies. That’s good, because I need something to make up for the fact that my joints are rusty, my knees sound like popcorn being microwaved when I squat, and the jacket pocket that I used to use for a comb now holds my eyeglasses.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, June 1996.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1996_06.pdf, printed page(s) 7; PDF page(s) 7.
