Sunday, March 25, 2012
Old people.....a race apart?
Not so very long ago, it seems, that I suppose I thought that I could have nothing in common with old people. Indeed there must have been a time when I didn't quite believe that old people and me were the same race.
The way old people lived and talked and thought was nothing like the way I did those things!
Time has moved on and I guess I am presumed to be an old person by many youngsters.
I am not an old person of course - can't be, because I am no different from how I have always been.
And, as a not yet old person, I, slightly tongue in cheek, described today as an afternoon tea with 2 aged cousins.
Visiting relations on a Sunday afternoon for tea.........how long since that happened? It used to be common place.
It used to be normal to open a tin of salmon to make sandwiches and then to have some tinned peaches with evaporated milk and some trifle or cake.
Well, some things have changed....me, mainly!
But the basis of our tea was much as Sunday afternoon tea used to be. Yes, there were tinned salmon sandwiches - and lots of other kinds. I actually removed the fillings and scraped it all on to rice cakes.
I felt I couldn't be totally fussy and ate the jelly, made with evaporated milk. Memo to self - get some extra tablets down you to counteract that evaporated milk.
There were 4 different types of cake. Yummy!
But I have returned home feeling bloated and with a head ache. OK - perhaps it is not just bread that causes me such problems. I had hoped that my wheat/gluten intolerance was a figment of my imagination.
Now I must promise myself 6 weeks of not just being bread free, but wheat/gluten free.
Despite that I have had a great time with Betty and Ann.
They are both over 80 now. Ann, the elder is rather fragile these days. Betty continues life with tremendous energy and enthusiasm. She is a tailor/seamstress by trade and loves nothing better than to be creative with a needle.She has embarked on a superb patch work quilt and has created some superb blankets. She goes line dancing twice a week.
We have spent some hours talking, gossiping and giggling.
Oh I did laugh when I heard that their mother, Auntie Sophie had been propositioned by her father in law! I don't suppose Auntie Sophie laughed much about it though.
I can see now that I am part of the same human race as old people - that they think and talk and giggle just as they have always done and I have much in common with them.......not least of all we have old age in common!
Though to Ann and Betty, I am just a young one.
It was a lovely afternoon.
This morning was worthwhile but tiring.
We battled with seemingly half the population of south Sussex at the car boot sale in the field at Sayers Common. Pushing a trolley round a field is hard work - though people pushing the hundreds of push chairs didn't seem to be too concerned.
I like to go round such a boot sale quite fast - it is easy to gloss one's eyes over a stall and quickly decide if it is the sort I would like to stop at. Mr and Mrs General Public and their kids and babies and dogs on leads amble slowly and then suddenly stop about 6 inches in front of my speeding trolley.
I was constantly manoevering the thing right and left to avoid ankles.
Never mind we came home with some more bargains. None of it has been sorted of course.
And parcels that need to be made to post tomorrow have not yet been done.
I shall have to get up early in the morning.
The way old people lived and talked and thought was nothing like the way I did those things!
Time has moved on and I guess I am presumed to be an old person by many youngsters.
I am not an old person of course - can't be, because I am no different from how I have always been.
And, as a not yet old person, I, slightly tongue in cheek, described today as an afternoon tea with 2 aged cousins.
Visiting relations on a Sunday afternoon for tea.........how long since that happened? It used to be common place.
It used to be normal to open a tin of salmon to make sandwiches and then to have some tinned peaches with evaporated milk and some trifle or cake.
Well, some things have changed....me, mainly!
But the basis of our tea was much as Sunday afternoon tea used to be. Yes, there were tinned salmon sandwiches - and lots of other kinds. I actually removed the fillings and scraped it all on to rice cakes.
I felt I couldn't be totally fussy and ate the jelly, made with evaporated milk. Memo to self - get some extra tablets down you to counteract that evaporated milk.
There were 4 different types of cake. Yummy!
But I have returned home feeling bloated and with a head ache. OK - perhaps it is not just bread that causes me such problems. I had hoped that my wheat/gluten intolerance was a figment of my imagination.
Now I must promise myself 6 weeks of not just being bread free, but wheat/gluten free.
Despite that I have had a great time with Betty and Ann.
They are both over 80 now. Ann, the elder is rather fragile these days. Betty continues life with tremendous energy and enthusiasm. She is a tailor/seamstress by trade and loves nothing better than to be creative with a needle.She has embarked on a superb patch work quilt and has created some superb blankets. She goes line dancing twice a week.
We have spent some hours talking, gossiping and giggling.
Oh I did laugh when I heard that their mother, Auntie Sophie had been propositioned by her father in law! I don't suppose Auntie Sophie laughed much about it though.
I can see now that I am part of the same human race as old people - that they think and talk and giggle just as they have always done and I have much in common with them.......not least of all we have old age in common!
Though to Ann and Betty, I am just a young one.
It was a lovely afternoon.
This morning was worthwhile but tiring.
We battled with seemingly half the population of south Sussex at the car boot sale in the field at Sayers Common. Pushing a trolley round a field is hard work - though people pushing the hundreds of push chairs didn't seem to be too concerned.
I like to go round such a boot sale quite fast - it is easy to gloss one's eyes over a stall and quickly decide if it is the sort I would like to stop at. Mr and Mrs General Public and their kids and babies and dogs on leads amble slowly and then suddenly stop about 6 inches in front of my speeding trolley.
I was constantly manoevering the thing right and left to avoid ankles.
Never mind we came home with some more bargains. None of it has been sorted of course.
And parcels that need to be made to post tomorrow have not yet been done.
I shall have to get up early in the morning.
