So, I'm walking to the 'Y'...

[tybeegb]

on the sidewalk by the highway that runs into Tybee.  I look across the road (four lanes with two emergency lanes) and see a wheel chair coming from the opposite direction, on the sidewalk.  Strange.  Then I see an old man leaning up against a power pole and he's calling to me.  I run across the highway and he asks me which way to get to the "old folk's home".  Well, it's hot, and humid.  And he's a mile from the "old folk's home".  He says he's lost and he can't go any further.  There isn't any shortcut, so it's a mile either way you go.  So I get him situated in his wheel chair to head back around to the "old folk's home" and he goes into a running commentary about how he ended up here and what he used to do, non-stop.  He looked ancient but his mind was clearly okay.  Then he asked me how old I thought he was.  I say 84.  Well, he's 66.  I tell him I've got him by two years at 68.  Then he starts up again about how he didn't do things in moderation when he was younger, but now he can have a little nip and a smoke now and then but doesn't over do it like he used to.  

So, as I'm pushing him back to the "old folks home" I'm wondering if and when any staff will miss him and come looking for him.  He had to have been gone over an hour, and the home is only a quarter mile from the beach, and he didn't have cell phone.  As I push him back up to the front door of the home, there are several more old men in wheel chairs sitting under the awning by the door and someone I thought might be a staffer but no one paid him any attention as he thanked me and rolled himself inside.  

So, as I resumed my walk to the 'Y' I had a little more incentive to keep trying to maintain my health and hope I go quick, before I end up like that old man and be out wandering the road in a wheelchair.  And his name is Daughtry.  And he'll pray for me.    

[Longjohn ★]

There are a lot of old folks like that at my high school reunion.

[pedalphile]

Your good deed for the day is done. Now, beware the bad break coming your way in payback: there’s allus a price to be paid for these good deeds.

[shootingstar]

2 hours ago, tybeegb said:

 Then he asked me how old I thought he was.  I say 84.  Well, he's 66.  I tell him I've got him by two years at 68.  Then he starts up again about how he didn't do things in moderation when he was younger, but now he can have a little nip and a smoke now and then but doesn't over do it like he used to.  

 

Sobering to meet others just a few years away.  I was stunned a friend of mine and she's only 1 yr. younger than I, she chose to move in senior's /retirement home when she and hubby turned 57.,

[donkpow]

But really, don't you wish you used to be a kick ass dude?

[pedalphile]

3 hours ago, donkpow said:

But really, don't you wish you used to be a kick ass dude?

I must have been a year or two older than that wee chap, say, 5 years olde, when I first tried a smoke; I led a sheltered life in some ways ?

[Airehead]

Definitely a story that makes you pause and think. 

[pedalphile]

4 hours ago, pedalphile said:

I must have been a year or two older than that wee chap, say, 5 years olde, when I first tried a smoke; I led a sheltered life in some ways ?

On more consideration I call BS and fake news, that fag is not even lit, it’s a staged photo, like those I’ve done with the cats when they’re blissed out sleeping, shoved a smoke in their lips and scattered empty beer bottles around. I hate fake news; at least when I tried a smoke at 5 y/o it was lit, and made me properly poorly.

[donkpow]

11 hours ago, pedalphile said:

On more consideration I call BS and fake news, that fag is not even lit, it’s a staged photo, like those I’ve done with the cats when they’re blissed out sleeping, shoved a smoke in their lips and scattered empty beer bottles around. I hate fake news; at least when I tried a smoke at 5 y/o it was lit, and made me properly poorly.

Indeed. We should outlaw all expressions of imagination. It just confuses the issues.