Old Age, Get Ready for It
(A few clips from Old Age Is Not for Sissies by Art Linkletter)
Introduction to Old Age Is Not for Sissies
"Since I intend to spend the rest of my life there, my interest is in tomorrow; and the best thing about tomorrow is that it comes one day at a time."
Straighten up, shoulders back, sharpen your senses of humor, keep control of your lives, and remember that Thomas Jefferson recommended: "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing."
Old age definitely is not for sissies. [Note: The term "sissies" is a derogatory word for a cowardly person. Etymologically, it comes from "sister", and its extended form is "sis". The meaning of "effeminate man" is recorded from 1887.]
Old age is for people who can laugh as hard as the seventy-eight-year-old lady who told me what made her realize she wasn't twenty-one anymore. She described standing near a curb waiting for a friend to pick her up so they could drive to a restaurant for lunch.
A man observing her waiting assumed something was wrong. He came up to her and asked if there was anything he could do to help.
She told him there wasn't and said, "I'm just waiting to get picked up." She said he looked at her like he couldn't believe what she'd told him before replying, "Well, lady, as old as you look, you could be in for quite a wait."
Art's favorite story of memory loss
Martha and her husband, Fred, were sitting in their small living room watching TV one evening. Out of the blue, Fred said to Martha, "Say, I'll bet you'd like some ice cream, wouldn't you?"
"Oh yes, that would taste good; I'd just love some, but we don't have any in the house," she said.
"That's okay," her husband of fifty-two years replied. "I'll walk over to the store and buy some. While I'm there, I'll also get some chocolate and whipping cream so we can make sundaes."
"That would be just wonderful," Martha said. As he was getting ready to leave she said, "You know your memory isn't what it used to be, dear. With three things to remember, don't you think you should make a list?"
"No, I don't. The store is only two blocks away. I won't forget," he said.
About forty-five minutes later he returned carrying a brown grocery bag. Martha walked into the kitchen and watched as he took out three pounds of bacon.
"Oh, Fred," she said, "I told you to make a list . . . you forgot the eggs."
It comes down to one word: attitude
According to Art Linkletter, "attitude" may very well be the most important word in the English language. It explans what makes us think and act like we're forty on our seventy-fifth birthday or what makes others act and behave as though they're seventy-five on their fortieth birthday.
While Art was talking to Bob Hope about Senior America, Bob reminded him that it was President Eisenhower who originally said, "There are three stages of life: youth, maturity, and 'God, you look good!' "
On another occasion, Bob said, "If I could speak at one time to all Senior Americans, I'd tell them to forget their age and do exactly what they feel like doing. It all comes down to attitude. Excitement is what really keeps you going."
The heart of Old Age Is Not for Sissies, is information: what rights and opportunities are available to Senior Americans and how they can be secured.
Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant, and interesting.