Your Life, A Masterpiece in the Making

Enjoy the Elderly

The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old (Proverbs 20:29 NIV).

I enjoy people of advanced age. First, I love the history that we can gather from those so much older than ourselves. Things were so different when they were young.

Looking back, things have changed so much just from the time I was young. We didn’t have color television sets. We had a tiny black and white set with only three channels. I remember watching a show, and the NBC peacock would come on and say the show would be, “brought to you in living color!” I would get so excited, and the show would come on… and it was still black and white. Talk about false advertisement! When I was around ten years old we got our first colored set, and what a wonderful set it was. We would all gather around to watch the shows. Some of them were still black and white, but the colored shows were amazing! I especially delighted in getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons on that magnificent color set. I especially enjoyed Looney Tunes, as well as Tom and Jerry, The Banana Splits and Mighty Mouse to name a few.

We had a telephone connected to the wall with a rotary dial and a curly cord that always got tangled. We didn’t know what a computer or cell phone was, and if someone were to tell us of the technology of the future we would have laughed. We had no microwave, but just a stove to heat up and cook items. Clothing had to be ironed, and trash had to be burned. Our first dishwasher was named Dora, compliments of my mother, and it had to be rolled across the floor to be hooked up to the faucet in the kitchen. If the connections weren’t put on correctly, we would have water spraying all over. It was loud, but it helped get the job done. We had a monstrous vacuum that was hard to push, and actual fuses for the fuse box. We never had electric car windows or car starters. We had to do all of that work by hand. We had record players, which finally gave way to 8tracks and cassettes. I remember my first 8track player! I felt like I was really moving up in the world. Snow blowers were unheard of, and even riding lawnmowers were never seen. We had to pull weeds by hand because weed trimmers weren’t yet invented. The grass on our acreage would get so tall sometimes Dad would rent a tractor to cut it down. We would follow him around picking up snakes as he made paths for our little feet to walk on.

If these are some the differences that I have seen since I had been young, just think of the information an elderly person could give to the children of today! Their world was even more basic, and some older people may perhaps even report of the uses of rain barrels and cellars.

I even take delight in the way older people look. When I see an older couple shopping together, I can’t help but smile. The small, sure steps, and the way they engage each other in conversation make me want to just stop and watch. I love the wrinkles, and their stooped stature. What is rather remarkable is that Daniel feels the same way. When he sees an elderly person, he will point them out and say, “Aren’t they adorable?”

In stores is the place I see many of advanced age, and I do tend to keep an eye on them. If someone is having a hard time unloading a cart with groceries, I may offer to help. One day there was an older gentleman in the produce aisle. He was trying diligently to open one of those clear plastic bags to fill with oranges. I, many times, have a hard time opening them myself. I grabbed another bag, eventually opened it, and noticed he was still struggling. I said, “I’ll trade you,” and offered him my open bag. He gratefully accepted my meager offering and thanked me. I struggled with his bag a little longer and finally got it opened. Two for two! It was a good day.

Gray hair looks perfect on the elderly. When you talk about a grandma or grandpa, I immediately envision a little old person with a white crown of hair. I figure by the time they are that age, they have earned each and every strand. Well, like my mom, I’m not so sure if I will ever be able to wear that crown of gray. I do enjoy the color of my natural hair, and continue to treat those unsuspecting strands of gray with dark brown. One day a few months ago, I was at a supermarket. I was in the hair dye aisle searching for my correct color and brand. As I was standing there deciding which one, an elderly woman was looking over my shoulder at the items I was standing in front of. Pretty sure that I was in her way, I scooted to the side. She was a very pretty lady. Her hair looked like it had been just styled at a salon. She wore jewelry and a very pretty dress. She asked me if

I could help her find a “rinse.” Not really sure what she meant, I asked her if she meant hair conditioner, and that was in the next aisle. She said no, that she wanted the hair color rinse, and that last time she had bought it, she had found it right around the same area in which we were standing. I helped her look, and sure enough, we found the color she was searching for. She then informed me she was one hundred one years old, and it was her birthday! I looked at her in shock. Here this woman who was totally “with it” was in the hair dye aisle looking for hair dye. I told her how honored I was to meet her, and how wonderful she looked. She had a youthful expression in her eyes that shone when she talked. Her friend then came up beside us, and verified her age. I gave her a hug, not knowing anything about this lady, but that if she was one hundred one years old and looking at dye, she was my hero. Then she said something that made me literally laugh out loud. She asked me to direct her to the make-up section. She needed something for her wrinkles and some new make-up! Now I knew for sure this is me in fifty more years. I left the store that day with a huge smile. I knew God had shared this woman with me to make my day a little brighter and my load a little lighter. So if you see me in the hair dye aisle when I am one hundred years old, please direct me to the makeup. Surly I will need a little something for my wrinkles!

This puzzle piece may have a few wrinkles through the middle of it, but is still just as important and viable as all the rest of your pieces. This is the piece that brings you knowledge of days gone by as well as a peek into the future when you, yourself, will be advanced in age. This important piece may shed a little light on how simple life used to be without all the gizmos and gadgets of today. Those days when it was the norm to type a letter using a manual typewriter with the ribbon that would make your fingers black if you touched it. It was perfectly fine to take naps in the back of the station wagon without seatbelts, or to ride in the bed of a pickup on the interstate. It was a normal sound to hear the coffee pot percolating in the mornings, while listening to an AM station on the radio with static in the background. You could take walks at night without fears of being mugged, and newspapers were the way to catch up on events happening in the world. Enter this piece with nostalgia.

What are three things that are much different today than when you were only ten years old? Do you ever wish you could return to those days of a little less technology and simplicity? How do you think this world would be if we didn’t have the technology of today? Would there be more conversations, more phone calls and more personal interactions? What are some things we can learn by listening to stories of those who are older than ourselves? Take time to ask them. It may just surprise you how much you will learn.