Elder Effervescense

Elder Effervescence

Old folks are people who have been young longer than young folks.

DB - The Vagabond

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One beautiful summer day when I was about 40 I was hiking up Middle Moat Mountain in New Hampshire. The timber line is quite near the base so that when you come out of it you are looking up at an open rocky trail. I had my shirt off, my back pack on and I was feeling good. I looked up ahead of me and saw two people coming down. As they got closer I could see that they were two teenage girls. We nodded as they passed me. And I heard one girl talking to the other and she said "Yes. I still see him. But he's old now, he's almost 20." I felt like saying "Come here girls. Let me tell you something about being old." But I let them pass.
The following winter I was directing a boy-meets-girl musical for the high school. The boy had a line which read "She makes me young again." But he kept getting it wrong. He would say "She makes me feel young again," which was cute but not as funny as the real line. I kept correcting him, but still he kept getting it wrong. So one day I told them the story of the two girls I met on the mountain side. Then I asked him "How old are you?"
"18."
"18!? You're almost 20. You're old! You're over the hill, You're past it. It's all over for you. Down hill all the way from now on. I can already see the gray hair and the wrinkles. Can you make it with a cane, or do you have to use a walker? I'm sorry, but 18? You're old."
Everyone laughed.
Then I asked "And what does she do to you?"
"She makes me young again."
He never got the line wrong after that.
Tags: Old folks, Middle Moat Mountain