 |
| “When’s the last time you’ve been to a good old Gospel Sing?” |
Points2Ponder
By Alan P. Scaglone
“I’m too old to be young, and too young to be old.”
One of my all time favorite lines from a movie.
Never thought I would “live” that line!
I just turned 52—and I told my wife, “why do we say we’re middle aged? Do we really have a rat’s chance of turning 90?”
Sometimes, you just need to put it all in perspective… and this weekend we got a bird’s eye view of our life…should we be so lucky to make it through the last third of our lives!
Yep—we went to a Gospel Sing at….drum roll please… a VFW Hall!
And before you ask? I had no idea the Sing was in a VFW Hall—I would have worn my uniform…or at least, borrowed one!!
POINTS2PONDER Why do we assume that the band will play on? Why is it so hard to accept…that some of us are entering the “last act” of this play called life?
We wanted to go see an old friend of mine whose wife and teenage daughters were singing in, of all places, CHRISTMAS, Florida!
As the ol’ guy who opened and closed the evening said…”it may be Christmas only one day a year everywhere else, but it’s Christmas year round around here!”
Everyone laughed!
Funny to see my buddy Dave change the type of songs on the fly with a comment like “how many of you like hymns? Some of you were around when they were introduced the first time!”
Everyone laughed—until they got that he was calling them old!
It was hilarious to see his teenage daughters react to the old people talking while they were singing—the oldtimers got up to go get coffee then stopped and started a conversation—all while the group sang!
But the funniest part came when…
The emcee (Mr. Christmas comment) asked “how many couples have been married 50 years or more?”
Remember that…there were only 24 people there, and that included my friends who were singing, their teenage daughters and…my “middle aged” wife and myself!
So…he asks the question, and NINE couples raise their hands…yes!! I said NINE!
He chuckles and says, “okay, how about 51? 52? 53?”
He had to get to 59 years married to get to the last couple!!
The funniest thing is…at 59 years, the man put his hand down, and his wife kept her hand up and yelled at him “We had an ANNIVERSARY last week!! Don’t you remember???”
The man just shook his head and said, “I can’t remember how many years it’s been—feels like forever!”
I just cracked up laughing—my wife HIT ME! But, I still laughed!
Needless to say, when the evening was over, and we were walking to our car, arm in arm…
I whispered to my wife “I suddenly don’t feel so old!”
Sometimes…it just takes a little perspective!!
This sounds like a great time was had by all....Thank you Alan for the columns you write each and every week, never missing a deadline no matter what. I always look forward to the next one.
ReplyDeleteLove you little brother!