Hammertime
It seems that it was only yesterday that I got lovingly roasted by my entire family on the occasion of my 70th birthday, but all of a sudden here we go again past another September 11 and I have already added another two years to my active life as a mostly happy-go-lucky but occasionally grumpy senior citizen. As always, yours truly tried to glide through the day at a normal and laid back pace with a pleasant trip to my favourite hometown of Ponoka. However, it didn’t take long before my precious family, friends, and Ponoka News workmates joyfully and jokingly reminded me that although I didn’t really look any older, I was still showing signs of being just a little bit more fragile, with a whole lot more silver showing up among the boring old brown that I have carefully pampered and brushed over the past seven plus decades.
Do you remember when we were kids and the birthdays couldn’t come fast enough as we looked forward to the party, the cake, and all those presents? As we entered into our teens we longed for our first bike, and then as we approached the big 18, we dreamed about our very first car, a chance to enter a noisy tavern, and all those hot dates and parties. After that, our birthdays came on a big roll as we hopefully finished school, headed off to college, chose a career, and then bravely entered into all the perks and stresses of adulthood where we had to start keeping track of everyone’s else’s birthdays and anniversaries.
I am so thankful that no matter what, I have always been blessed with a very supportive family, and have managed to gather a whole lot of amazing friends and characters of past and present that I will never forget. Along the way, they have encouraged me to always respect and reach out to others, while striving to walk our personal path of life with an exciting combination of work, play, and good humour, while sharing all aspects of our adventures with friends and family through no matter what each day might bring. Thanks, as always, for the gifts, cards, phone calls, emails, best wishes, and great jokes on the occasion of ‘Mikey’ somehow managing to add another 32 years to the next chapter of my life that came after those first wild 40 years. For all of us that featured our topsy-turvy survival from tiny tots, to teens, and through the terrible 20s before finally attempting to settle into a more laid back life of wedded bliss, the work force, parenthood, family sports, and some sort of adult sensibility…
Thank goodness my friends gave me cup-cakes and muffins for the celebration, because I would have never been able to blow out 72 candles and too much icing stretches the tummy and gives me heartburn. In the mean-time I will still try to stay active and healthy and cherish my family, while trying to be of some help around the house, as well as pampering our grand-children, hanging out with as many old and new friends as I can, as well as to just keep on writing a few stories and columns about our great home town and districts, both yesterday and today, as long as you keep giving me the ideas and the pictures.
A birthday email that is oh so true
Here is an email that an old friend, who is younger than me, sent to The Hammer on the occasion of my birthday, and I will pass it on to you. Whether we like it not, we may have already or will eventually reach this melancholy category of the never-ending and always changing process of aging. No matter how we feel today, we must always proudly look back and treasure and share the amazing web that we have woven, with the fondest memories of what we have all achieved and gathered around us along the way.
Another year has passed and we’re all a little older.
Last summer felt hotter, and each winter seems so much colder.
There was a time not long ago when life was quite a blast,
But now we fully understand about ‘living in the past.’
We used to go to weddings, football games, and lunches...
Now we go to garage sales, old time dances, and after-funeral brunches.
We used to have hangovers from parties that were gay,
But now we suffer body aches and while the night away.
We used to go out dining and couldn’t get our fill,
But now we ask for doggie bags, go home and take a pill.
We used to often travel to places near and far,
But now we get sore butts from sitting in the car.
We used to go to nightclubs and drink a little booze,
But now we stay home at night and watch the evening news.
That, my friends is how life is, and now my tale is told.
So, let us enjoy each day and live it up before we’re too darned old.
But in the meantime just go ahead, let loose a little, and have a great week, all of you.