3 replies to this topic

[sheepdog]

I wonder why this particular forum is so slow? It's been nearly a month since there was even a reply to an old post. Surely all the posters here are not so young as to have not had any good real life experiences yet to write about? I would think if you were old enough to walk and talk and type, you'd have something to contribute here. Even if it was how you tippped over when you were 3 years old learning to ride a trycicle!

One of the lessons I've managed to pick up along the road of life is to have an appreciation of old people. I should clarify, REALLY old people, those that are even older than me! I actually enjoy the company of these folks. It amazes me all the things I can learn just talking to old folks that have really really been there, done that.

I think what got me started on this was an old man I had for a neighbor many years ago. He was the father of my landlord, but I never saw the land lord, I just took the money every month to the old man, and his son would run by whenever and pick it up from him. Over the months I got well aquainted with the old man. He was really a nice fellow, and definatly an old timer, in his 90's, and old fashion to boot. He grew his own tobacco, smoked it in a pipe, and took a shot of wiskey every night before bed. Actually that home grown tobacco could be considered an interesting life experience all on it's own. If you've never tried it you would be shocked at how strong natural tobbacco is. I kid you not, that stuff will cross your eyes! The ciggerette companies really do a number on taming the original tobacco plant.

Anyway, he had farmed and lived his entire life in this community, so there were so many things I learned from him. Especially after we got aquainted and he invited me to plant garden with him one year, since there really wasn't a place fenced off on the property I was actually living on. I was happy to take him up on the offer. He had a great garden spot, worked on for years, and anyone in this country knows that it takes awhile to get a good garden spot, Missouri is famous for having more rocks than dirt. It takes years of picking out rocks, adding soil amendments and killing off weeds to really have a good garden. We planted several things I was not familiar with, like tobacco, but even crops that I had grown before I found better varieties to actually plant, like the sweetest, best flavored sweet corn for example. I learned lots of time tested, simple tricks. Like starting your own sweet potato slips. You put the potatoes in a small raised bed, and cover them with tin at night to help keep them warm real early in the season so they will go ahead and start growing so you can have them ready in time for actual planting time when the weather is finally warm enough.

I enjoyed his stories too, of how life used to be. Riding a horse to town, the difference in the way school was, dealing with and relating to other people, and hundreds of other things that are not not even remembered or considered these days.

Several years after I moved away, I stopped in one day just to visit. It was in the spring, summer time and I asked him how his garden was doing. Instead of whining and complaining about life, he just said that he was getting rather too stiff to hoe the weeds, and had to crawl threw the rows on his hands and knees to pull weeds! He really was an amazing old man!

I would encourage any of you to take advantage of any elderly people who may be in your family, or even just strangers in your neighborhood. You will be amazed at what you might learn. And spending time with the elderly is a two way street. Not only will you be learning, they will have company and someone to share all the great things, and maybe even the not so great things they have had to learn one way or another. I kind of look on the elderly as a vast, unused natural resource. My old man neighbor had lots of family. They looked in on him daily, and one daughter would help him do his house cleaning once a week. But they never spent TIME with him. They never took him anywhere or really included him in any of their family activities. It was actually rather sad. I took him fishing a few times and he really got a big kick out of it.
So, if you have the oppertunity, it is definatly worth while to enjoy the company of some old folks.

[anwiii]

you know what the first sign is in growing older? when you enjoy hanging around people with walkers. haha

actually, i like this post. i started appreciating the elderly more when i was in my 20's. it's true. you can learn a lot. they have so many experiences and stories to tell and lessons that were learned. i think it's sad that people don't usually give them the time of day.

one of my most treasured times with my grandmother was when she had her first stroke and she came to live with the family. i was going to a local college during that time, but before that, i didn't really respect some of the things she would do before that time. she was prejudice somewhat, she assumed things that weren't true, she was stubborn as hell! she went against my mom being a parent once and did something that was wrong of her to do. she loved her grandkids though. i just didn't respect a lot of what i knew about her

when she had this stroke and moved in with us, i had a chance to talk to her daily and get to know her. heck, we talked about everything. she was never one to talk all that much but for some reason, we held some really cool discussion and some of them were very deep. a few months later she had another stroke and was never the same again and died a few years later. but i will NEVER foget that special time we spent together. not just because she was my grandmother, but we shared something during a time that we never did before.

i learned a lot back then and i found an appreciation for the elderly. i think this is why we are taught to respect them even if they do things you don't respect. because they have so much to share with the world and the younger generation if they're able. since then, i have always made it a point to acknowledge them and talk to them and my experiences with them have been VERY fullfilling. even if i am stuck in a chair beside someone who will tell me a story about his life one day, and then the very next day, tell me the same story because he forgot he ever talked to me the day before and sometimes i questioned if he ever knew me past 1 day.

and as much as we can learn from them, we are giving them something special to. a listening ear and a caring heart. i think the younger generation has something they can teach THEM too so it's sad when i see them ignored. to me it's a waste both ways. what's made it easier for me to be around the elderly recently now is being in missouri where everything is laid back and people are so friendly. i get a kick out of how easy it is to live in the midwest and small towns after coming from the biggest city in the u.s.

[iAssistant]

I don't really hang with old people. I can't find the words to start a discussion and I can't get into their discussion but I admire old people who has wisdom and can share them with you. I like old people, where I can learn about life. We need them to guide us. Unfortunately, not old people has wisdom, still I respect them.

[sheepdog]

Sadly, many young people today do not have the oppertunity to hang with the old folks. In generations past, the elderly parents often stayed in the home of the adult children, or had a home of their own next door or otherwise quite nearby to where their children were. Farm families especially, when the kids grew up and got married and started a family of their own, they just built another house somewhere else on the farm. That way the children of the young adults could grow up with their grandparents close at hand. Now a days the parents are rushed to to "retirenment communities" or even worse, nursing homes, and the kids never get that chance to know their grandparents. We have become a very mobil society, often the kids move half way across the country when they leave home.