Life Begins at Eighty

The author loves to write and has written something all her life. She has written skits for PTA, skits for her TOPS CLUBS, letters to the editor and political letters to get things done or undone. She wrote poetry just for her amusement or the joy and laughter of her friends. She wrote rap before it was named and became popular. Finally the author reached into her computer, her written records, old pictures. and her memory. There she came up with enough information to write columns about her life from the depression days up to the present. She wrote the first column when she was eighty for the Star News in Port St. Joe, Florida. Soon she was writing for The Pilot Tribune in her old home town of Blair, Nebraska and Zapata, Texas where they had formerly wintered. HER LIFE HAD BEGUN. Her book tells about growing up during the depression when milk was given away free and lamb chops were five cents per pound. She recalls stealing green apples off the trees so her mother could cook them with rice to make desert for supper. In those days all the school kids stole apples on the way home from school. That was the treats they couldn’t afford in the store. She remembers walking three miles to school through snowing and blowing. That walk was nice in the summer but in the winter b-r-r-r-r. She came from a musical family. She visualizes being born with the family chorus surrounding her singing: “Welcome to the World” and “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby.” Her dad played violin and classical guitar. From her two brothers, down through the family to her great grandsons all of the men except one played the guitar, the piano, or the violin. My daughter was born singing and dancing. She both played clarinet and danced with the high school band. Both her brothers and sisters and her parents sang in a family chorus that they wouldn’t let her join. She had one sister, the youngest, who sang like an angel. She was the only one who sang professionally WHAT A LINE UP! She writes of the animals in her life, dogs, cats, and horses that she loved. and of their different personalities. She told of a special dog, Millie, that her son and his wife adopted from the Omaha Humane Society to keep it from being put to sleep. It had been diagnosed to be terminal with a cancerous kidney. It was love at first sight between the author and Millie. When she and her husband went to visit, their other two dogs came barreling down the hill to meet them with Millie on their tale nipping at their heals like a parole officer. She didn’t realize she was terminal. After those runs she couldn’t hold her water. When the flood was over I picked her up and dheld her. Under my son and his wife’s tender care, she lived seven more years. When she finally went to ‘doggie heaven’, she took the author’s heart with her. After retiring they traveled to Hawaii, England, New Zealand, Ireland, Wales, the Netherlands, Australia, France, Germany, and Canada and all over Mexico. She writes about those trips. They went on a thirty day camping trip through the Outback of Australia. They slept in tents and one of the tour guides cooked their meals from a trailer that was pulled behind the bus. They were on ‘roads where they didn’t see another car for 100 miles, climbed Aires Rock, and saw the giant termite mounds. At a restaurant at Alice Springs they were offered alligator and cangaroo on the menus and she yelled “where’s the beef and got it she thought. When in The Netherlands they saw Ann Frank’s house and traveled the canals. In France they saw the Eiffel Tower, and all the buildings with ancient architecture. In Germany they saw where the “Wall” used to be and all the building that was going on there. In Ireland they kissed the Blarney Stone and admired the beautiful scenery. In England they checked out the town named Bathurst after her ancestors and saw the Queen’s Palace. In my opinion, New Zealand tied for first place with Hawaii for the most beautiful places they’d been. Australia was the most interesting. They wintered on the Mexican coast for years and took many of the tours that were offered. They saw the Ruins at the Yucatan, climbed the pyramids at Mexico City, and visited Copper Canyon. She writes Odes to friends and famous people who are “Gone but not forgotten”: How Johnny Carson filled their life with laugher and was the only show that ever made them stay up after 9 o’clock. They lived in Norfolk when Johnny was a young magician. Little did they know how famous he would become? She told how Superman’s life was an inspiration to her the way he fought his disability after his accident and did all he could to solve the medical dilemma of spinal injuries. There were many people from her home town of Blair that she wrote Odes about. One was an artist, Kent Bellows, who became famous and finally displayed his art in New York City. Another was a long time Blair teacher, Hazel Harris, who left her mark in many ways besides teaching. There was one man from Gregory, S. D. who wintered in Zapata, Texas. He lived to be 100 years old before giving up his extraordinarily beautiful life. She suggests that everyone should write a “bucket list” of things they attempt to complete before they die. Last but not least she writes about her Dad and his ‘One Man Show’ made up of funny songs, jokes, recitations and musical renditions on both classical guitar and violin. She writes of both tears and laughter and tells how each had a place in her life. I hope you enjoy it as much as she enjoyed writing it.