Last Saturday, my wife and I attended an 80th birthday party for a teaching colleague of mine from those early years in Assumption, Illinois, which goes back 54-years. As we entered the front door of our friends home, we were greeted by somebody's young grandson who said to us, "The old people are in the backyard." A thought quickly rushed through my head; I notice other peoples' grandkids are NOT as cute as mine. As I walked through the house and open the sliding door to the backyard came another thought; the little turd blossom was right...I never saw so many old people in a backyard setting since visiting Mother Lucille at the Merdian Village Seniors' Aloha cookout.
When you hang around with old folks you realize just how much change we've all experienced. We all remember Doctor house calls and home milk deliveries. I'm sure in that crowd there was marble-shooters of the past and a fella or two who knows just how hard the homemade ice cream freezer-handle turns near the end.
All those backyard oldsters once sat in kitchens with linoleum floors and sat in autos watching gas station attendants 'service' their vehicle. Why those service station guys would even repair your flat tire. As I looked at the 70-year plus ladies gathered at the party I wondered how many took shorthand classes in high school and learned to type on a manual typewriter.
That little boy I met at the front door passed by with his cell phone...bet his granddad once played mumblety-peg with a pocket knife. I heard one lady ask the 'time' and not one fella pulled out a pocket watch to check but a nearby teenager looked at his cell phone and said, "Six-ten."
I must stop now. Poodle, Yodie just came downstairs and wants to go outside. After that exercise. I believe I sit a spell with him and drink another cup of coffee. If grandpa E.V. Bennett were alongside, he'd sit a bit, smoke his pipe and whittle.
....somethings ain't no more.
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