Friday, March 12, 2010

Aging. It Ain't 4 the Faint of Heart!

One thing we wish we never learned about ourselves.


I’ve always had a cherub face and looked younger than my chronological age. It angered me. I always wanted to be older, i.e. suave and sophisticated. I wanted the gaunt, exotic, dramatic look of the ‘60’s movie stars.

One of the 1st signs that my body was degenerating occurred around 40. I slowly noticed that I was no longer asked for my ID when buying alcohol. Then, I got my wisdom teeth pulled, and all of a sudden, I had ‘less than round’ cheeks. Way 2 go girl! I thought. If I had known, I would have had that done years ago.

While traveling in recent years, I’ve secretly been thrilled [or going out of my way to] ordered a beer at an airport lounge as they were asked me for my ID. And the lightening was'nt even dimmed. Eventually I observed, dejected, as I realized they asked EVERYONE 4 their ID. Some sort of blanket control mechanism? Damn!

I occasional work at a grocery store in Iowa. The cash register, when ringing up an alcoholic beverage, asks that we enter the customer’s birth date. Last week in Oregon, shopping for a dinner party, I purchased a bottle of wine. Checking prices while unpacking, I noticed printed blatantly on the receipt, “age verification bypassed”. If there was ever a reason to pop the cork pre-dinner! Proof, once again, that we can never, ever outrun the aging process.


Hint to grocers: If the customer looks way too old to verify age, quietly push the ‘it’s ok’ button, but do not rub it in by printing it in black & white on our receipt! We may b past any doubt, but we r old enf to drink and we still have enf money & sense to shop elsewhere.

“Calm, calm me more! nor let me die
Before I have begun to live.”

~Matthew Arnold

2 comments:

  1. Linda, I've enjoyed your writings in emails for about the last 5 years. You always talked about that book inside you trying to get out. You're a bright, intelligent woman and it shows in what you can convey.

    Not sure what number I'm in the book so I'll have to buy it to find out.

    Jim

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Jim...U r #1 in my book...thanks 4 the comment...la la linda

    ReplyDelete