Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois © Bill Oliver 9 April 2006 Vol 5 Issue: #14 ISBN: pending Osiyo, Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, Life can be like a poem: The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day. When the sun is out and the wind is still, You're one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, a cloud come over the sunlit arch, And wind comes off a frozen peak, And you're two months back in the middle of March. - Robert Frost As I rub my knee replacements to loosen the joints and put my teeth in my mouth, I hear Dad at age eighty-eight saying, “Growing older isn’t for wimps”. As I pop my blood pressure medications and swallow my cholesterol pills, I hear Grandma Oliver at one hundred and two saying, “Growing older isn’t for sissies”. Then there is the special vitamins that slow down macular degeneration, so you know you're getting old when you think that when you were a kid you could toast marshmallows over my birthday candles; now I can roast a turkey! Sure things are different today. When I was a boy and I was sick, the doctor came to my house to treat me. Today when I’m sick I call the doctor and make an appointment. If I’m really, really sick I call 911. Today we have doctors that will treat our eyes, or our nose, or our ears, or out throat. There are doctors who treat our lungs. We have doctors for our allergies. Some doctors only look at our feet. Then, of course there are the proctologists. When I was a tad of a lad, my family doctor did all that. Also, when in conversations with people my own age the talk often turns into "dueling ailments." As we age, prices get higher, politicians get worse, and Oliver William Stone gets weirder. And, some of us “push the envelope” by putting “the hip into hip replacement”. Old age isn’t for wimps; however, being feisty is. Growing older we lose our footing and go flat on our derriere. We suddenly realize that there is not near the padding as we remember. We ask, “What did we do before there was Advil?” Then we remember something else; when we were younger we didn’t need so much padding! There are distinct advantages of being older – in a hostage situation you are likely to be released first. Aunt Marie, one of Dad’s sisters, was a marvel in her middle nineties. Legally blind for decades she continued to make us all laugh ourselves and played her organ to the very end. Great Aunt Nell and her sister, Myrtle, were of the Ames Clan. They pushed past nine decades of life also, and their many sisters rose daily as feisty and lively as Leprechauns. This older generation which set the tone of life for me knew that from the day that they were born they were edging toward dying and they made the very most of every day of life. So as I look back at them I am struck by the realization of how much my life has been defined by my past. When I meet someone new, the conversation inevitably turns to the past as an attempt to define ourselves. Then I suddenly realize that I’ve lived long enough for my experience to develop some excellent stories and reflections. What a grand thing it is that I cannot foresee the future. One the one hand, I wouldn’t be able to live in the present for wanting to hurry some things toward the future. And, on the other side of the coin, I wouldn’t be able to face the current day for knowing the horrible pain that awaits in the future. Some folks can’t enjoy life, but the Ames Clan did. Grandma Oliver in her mid-nineties demanded salt on her food while in the hospital. When the nurses wouldn’t give it to her, she said, “I’ve lived this long putting plenty of salt on my food!” [She got her salt!] Somewhere back in my experience I remember studying an Oriental Philosophy which stated five facts to be reflected on. That one is subject to aging; one is subject to illness; one is subject to death; that one will grow different, separate from all that is dear and appealing to them; and, one is the owner of their actions, heir to their actions, born of their actions, related through their actions, and have their actions as their arbitrator, for whatever they do, for good or for evil, to that will they fall heir.' While there's nothing I can do to prevent getting older, I can, though, put off feeling older for a while longer, full well knowing that the only thing worse than getting old is The Alternative. e-la-Di-e-das-Di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) and Wado, Bill -=- PostScript: Other sites worth visiting: http://www.deannedurrett.com/codetalkers.html PostScript: = = = = http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html