"Getting Old is Not for Sissies" Part One

“Getting old is not for sissies” is a quote by the late actress Bette Davis, my father-in-law always said it every time I asked him how he was doing today. Getting older is probably one of the most difficult challenges we have to deal with in our life. We have virtually absolutely no control over our life. 

Yes, we can affect it through what and how much we eat, how much exercise we get, the environment we are exposed to on a daily basis, not submitting to life’s excesses, the quality of health care we can afford and many other variables to name here.  But it tends to boil down to family history, and luck. Yes, luck plays an important part of how long you will live, the quality of your life, and what you experience during your lifetime.  I have found your sense of humor is what makes you happy throughout your life.

 

Your priorities change as you age, as does your personal view on life itself.  Your day-to-day conversations tend to go full circle.  While very young it’s all about us and what we are doing at that moment.  When we hit our 20’s, we discussed the next job on the totem pole of life.  In our 30’s, if we were blessed with children, they became the center of our life.  In our 40’s we begin to take a step back to see where we have been. 

When I turned 40 I finally began understanding what wisdom was all about.  I had done most everything wrong at least once, so I knew what not to do.  As we grow older, we attempt to take more control of our life. Key word is attempt.  It doesn’t always work out that way.  Even today,    I still don’t know what I want in life as it keeps changing. 

When I was younger, all I wanted to do is to play almost any sport, especially baseball, tennis, and basketball.  As I grew older I would drop a sport after an injury and reluctantly became a spectator.  The most difficult sport to give up was baseball, as I loved playing. Being a left-handed pitcher gave you some special opportunities.  As a spectator is just not the same as playing, but it’s a good substitute when you know the playing days are over. 

Although I still play tennis, my knees have slowed me down.  There are shots I once hit with ease, that are not going to happen anymore.  There was one constant in each sport, I never took anything seriously and always had a good time making wise cracks and doing things to make it more interesting or funny.

Once, while President of my fraternity in college, we started a baseball team in a summer league.  My best friend Mark and I were the captains.  We needed team shirts, so we went to a local sporting goods store and couldn’t find what we wanted.  Eventually, I stumbled onto a box in the corner of the store which held numbered shirts.  Unfortunately, they had shirts with only two different numbers, 27 and 18.

Traditionally, everyone on a team has their own unique number.  We decided that everyone on the team, except the managers, would have the same number 27 and since Mark and I were the managers, we would wear number 18 to help the umpire out so he knew who to go to for any questions about the team.

 

When we passed the shirts out to the team they looked at us like we were crazy. After they figured out what we did they all laughed and thought it was funny that they all had the same number, after all, we were on the same team and what better way to display teamwork as all having the same number?  We weren’t very good, but we could confuse and get a laugh out of the other team. Every umpire would always laugh.  Our team picture was classically funny.

Sports played a big portion of my life.   During my sports career I injured most of my body along the way.  I have broken or sprained nearly everything in my body.  Once, while in the first set of a doubles tennis league match, I ran into my partners racquet swing and had my two front teeth knocked out.  My mouth was numbed, so of course we finished that set and another, as I wouldn’t think of forfeiting because I had my teeth knocked out.  We finally won and after the set, luckily I had a friend as my dentist and he met me at his office. He quickly capped my two front teeth on a Saturday afternoon and I was fine for a great Saturday night. 

As I grew older, I found when I got out of bed in the morning the question became, what’s going to hurt today?  What did I do in my youth that would haunt me today?  What part of my body, that when I was young bounced back quickly, now hurts?  Each day is a new part of me aches.

I have always played doubles tennis.  I especially love playing young guys on Saturday mornings when they are hung over from a Friday night binge.  If I lose, my comment is always, “Big deal, you beat an old guy!”  If we won, it’s “You should be ashamed of yourself, you lost to an old guy.”  Either way I win.  LOL

As I age I find myself walking into a room and trying to figure out why I am there.  Usually, I return to where I was to try to remember what I was doing when I decided to go to the room in the first place. 

I also forget a lot of things.  I usually must leave the house and get in the car no less than three times before I have gathered what I forgot when I left in the first place.  In and out, in and out, back in the garage then I finally leave the house.  I have forgotten either my keys, my wallet, my glasses, my sun glasses, my cash, and of course my wife (she really doesn’t like it when I forget her).

There is one good thing about being old, you get discounts.  For some reason, especially food stores, believe older people like to shop on Wednesday’s for some reason.  I guess that’s why they call it “Over the hump day” to acknowledge old people made it through Wednesday.  I am not real sure about that.  Older people get AARP discounts and Senior Citizen discounts in many places as it’s kind of a reward for living past what is considered young and still be able to shop.

Besure to return on Thursday, August 4th, for the conclusion of "Getting Old Is Not For Sissies."

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