Your view: Getting (got) old

As the years slip by its hard not to acknowledge that you are no longer the young person that you see in your mind. I have had many clues in recent times.

I have been poked, prodded, looked at and had pictures taken by doctors and nurses, and they usually say the same thing, as we get older the body changes, you are in good shape, for a man your age.

I find I do not have to ask for the senior citizen's discount at the local fast food places, they automatically ring it in.

When I am in a store trying to find something, the attractive young ladies say, "Is there anything I can help you with, dear?" or checking out they usually say, "Come back again, hon," in a patronizing way, not in a way a virile, young man as myself expects from young beauties.

I used to love to get out and drive after an ice or snow storm, slipping and sliding were a lot of fun. Now to get me out after a winter storm, it has to be an emergency, like driving my wife to work.

The good old days keep getting better as the years pass, I usually remember the good times as better than they were and the bad times also better than they were.

Not too many years ago, I looked upon people my age as people who were hopeless, old and ready for the graveyard. Now I know exactly how I am perceived by the younger generation.

I believe everyone in my eighth grade class has died, at least everyone I can remember. Now the first place I look when I open the newspaper is the obituaries, and if my name is not there, I read the rest of the paper.

But the thing that convinced me I am old was a few days ago. I was looking at the screen of a security camera and saw this old man come in view, and I looked around to see where the old man was. Then I realized it was me.

Leon Edwards