GETTING OLD...

I'm not sure if it's because I am approaching one of those milestones (50 years on this planet), or the fact that when I look in the mirror I see my Papaw...but I've been thinking more and more lately about getting old.

Let me start this by saying that I LOVE OLD PEOPLE! I have always loved old people. Even when I was a kid, and the family would gather, I would often find myself sitting listening to the old folks talk while the other kids were playing outside.

Momma always told me, "Andy, you were born 30 years old." So, I guess that makes me almost an octogenarian. But I do love old folks. And I'll tell y'all, I sure do miss the old folks in my life that have gone on to heaven...I miss them every day. I miss Granddaddy & Grandmomma, and Papaw & Munnie, and my beloved Great Uncle Ross, and Mammie & Granny Laura (my two great grandmothers). Mammie died at 93, and Granny Laura at 104.

That's not Granny Laura in the picture by the way...but it was funny...at her 100th birthday party there must have been 200 people or more. She was in very good health, and as sharp mentally as a stinkin' tack. They wheeled in a huge cake with 100 lit candles while everyone sang "Happy Birthday." I wondered how in the world she was going to blow out all those candles.

She pulled out a Funeral Parlor fan and "fanned 'em out." It was hilarious! But I digress.

Oh wait...I just found an old picture of Granny Laura.

This is from Easter, 1982. Here you see Granny Laura with a broken arm (a funny story in itself...I know a broken arm isn't funny, but the story is)...The Mrs. ( looks like she's about to spit her Beechnut nyuk)...and Granny Laura's first Great Great Grandchild, Dean (my eldest son). She was only 91 (and a half) at the time. Man, I miss the old folks!

The truth is that almost all of the people that I count as "friends" are older than I am...some more than 30 years older.

I was reading an article over at The American Thinker by Jude Acosta this morning that really got me thinking. It didn't really change my mind about much, but it did cause me to sit down and type out my thoughts about "aging" in America...or aging, period.

The article is interesting, and worth a read if you have the time. It highlights stats about the growing elderly population in the US...the growing "depression" among older folks...and the shrinking "younger population" that will be called upon to care for the ever-increasing number of old folks.

My thoughts (because I know you ALL hang on every thought I have):

When President Bush came into office, one of his major campaign issues was "Social Security Reform." That lasted all of three seconds after the election. I still fault W for not taking the bull by the horns and getting this mess fixed. I think we all know who fought Social Security Reform the hardest...yep...old folks groups.

I scratch my gray/bald head and wonder, "When/how did this happen? When/how did a generation of self reliant, hard working, war winning, self sacrificing achievers go soft?

When/how did the "I've sacrificed, so I deserve it, damnit!!!" mentality among millions of old folks take hold and rob their souls? When/how did millions of those folks decide that they should live forever, and have every ache, pain, hangnail, and toenail clipping paid for by Medicare (their kids and grandkids taxes)?

It will not be very many years before it will require two "workers" to pay for the Social Security & Medicare benefits of each elderly citizen in the US. Anyone with half a brain knows that the Social Security, and Medicare systems are broken...broke...bankrupt...a ponzi scheme...completely unsustainable (pick your term).

Add to that the fact that Municipal, State, and Corporate retirement systems have completely overpromised (is that a word?) benefits to their "retirees," and you are looking at a disaster of Biblical proportions. Only a raving, lunatic fool like Barney Frank would say, "Dehes no pwobwem wif soshuw secwuwity...the pension fundws aw okay." This is the same moron that declared that Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac didn't need reform. (Jeepers, how did we get such retards as policy makers???)

There is a train wreck just around the bend my friends.

The article talks about old folks that move away from their children to areas of the US that are cheaper to survive in...and eventually get sick, become dependent on the State when they get sick, feeble-minded, etc.

It also proposes that modern America is at odds with history in the fact that we have "devalued" old folks, while most of human history shows the "elders" to be revered...looked up to...sought out for advice, etc. There may be some truth to that.

I decided about 15 years ago that I WILL NEVER BE A BURDEN to my wife, my children, or to society in my old age. After dealing with dying people (both young and old), my resolve is even more firm. I have often told The Mrs. that "when somebody else has to wipe my hiney...I'm outa here! I'm stumbling off into the woods on my walker, or refusing food."

I have also told her that I do not want my children to be weighed down by caring for me...either physically, or through a crushing tax burden that will make them prisoners on this earth. They have lives of their own. They have their own goals, dreams, etc. They did not ask to be brought into this world by me, and they should not be obliged to care for the man that is responsible for it. (I'm pretty sure it was me...the resemblance is striking).

I do not want my wife, or sons, to have memories of me lying in a bed with tubes running from my privates...turning me occasionally to prevent bedsores...hollow eyes (I guess it's getting personal now). THAT IS NO WAY TO LIVE, AND THAT IS SURELY NO WAY TO DIE!

I will opt to go to Heaven on my own terms...peacefully, not leaving the imprint of a struggle just to breathe one more breath on the ones that I love most.

The article also talks about how older ladies (mostly widow women) get depressed because they don't think they're attractive anymore. I reckon that's true. But I'll tell y'all for sure, I have seen some awfully good-looking 70-somethings. But I have found that the REALLY good-looking 70-something ladies have found other things to occupy their lives than a man.

My experience teaches me that the most "desperate" folks that lose a spouse are men...for the most part they are truly pitiful. They usually don't develop the relationships over the years that keep them from being pitiful like women do. I'm just saying...

Anyhow, I decided to sit down and write about getting old this afternoon. Don't bother to thank me.

Man! I really miss the old folks...