Time's a'Wasting

Every once in a while I will have a chat with my mother which leads down to “where did all the time go”?  We both cannot understand that 40, or 60, years have whizzed past us and we are standing here looking at each other with our wrinkles and our grey hair.  Where has time gone?

        My mother is 78 years old but she says inside she still feels young and full of life; it’s the outside that is hurting with rheumatism and stuff.  I feel exactly the same way but I am amazed to hear it from MY MOTHER.  She should be feeling old!  No, not really.  It’s good to know that we are all human and if all is normal and reasonably good in your life you are likely also still feeling young and peppy inside, even though the old body is creaking a bit.

        I think one of the things that keep us young is having a good memory about our school days and youth.  I really like recalling sitting at my desk way back in W.E. Breckon school in Burlington and remembering my classmates and the silly things that were said in class that made us giggle.  I can picture the kids like it was this morning, even down to their clothes (most times).  I remember the boys’ haircuts, the girl’s barrettes and ankle socks.  I remember how my teachers wore the same 3 dresses and 2 skirts and blouses.  They didn’t have a large wardrobe but they were always neatly pressed (oh yes, remember Miss B our French teacher in high school?  Every Friday she was wearing the same yellow dress (now wrinkled) from Thursday and we thought “ooh la la”!)

        Well, enough about my memories. Think about my mother, she’s going WAY BACK and she can remember HER teacher’s one dress (and there was some whispers about her too, dilly dallying with some German soldiers, oops).  Mom can practically recite, word for word, every book they read, what stories her teacher read out of their history book, what they DIDN’T learn in geography (they had a man teacher and Mom did not like him and therefore learned nothing. That’s why she still doesn’t know where Germany is on the map, or so she tells me.)  My mother can still add up long columns of numbers (in her head) and get the correct answer quicker than any of us.  Did I mention she is 78 years old?  She astounds the cashiers at the grocery store by telling them how much the bill will be before they have it all rung up (she adds everything up as she puts it in the cart).  She’s within pennies most of the time (unless she gets distracted during her shopping and someone puts something in the cart that she doesn’t know about). 

        She’s good, she’s real good.

        I love my Mom.