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- Story Listed as: True Life For Adults
- Theme: Family & Friends
- Subject: Aging / Maturity
- Published: 01/21/2025
Emails from old people.
Born 1951, M, from Wilmington NC, United States.jpeg)
Author's Note: This is a typical kind of email Seventy something men like me, send to their friends and family. Most folks tell me my emails are too long, and only folks my age would have the time, patience and will...to finish reading it. So here is what an ordinary email looks like from someone in their mid seventies to their friends. Just a conversation starter.
*****
Aloha All,
So we are going to get snow. We haven’t had more than a dusting of snow in over a decade. Sadly, the forecast went from having snow for three days down to just twelve hours. And most of those hours are at night! Snow from 9PM until around 3 AM. That’s it. But it might be more than two inches. That, my friends, is enough for children to make tiny snow people, and if they can find a hill (hills around here are rarer than a gall bladder in a seventy year old) they can even get in a sled ride …or two.
The snow is supposed to be gone by Wednesday Afternoon. Sigh. But at least the kids will get the morning to play in it. I will stay inside and just look at it. My childhood and HS days in Cleveland were enough for the snow to show its ugly side.
I do love walking in freshly falling snow…but that is out of the question this time. No boots, bad calf, and a fall at my age, changes my insurance premiums!
I just hope the kids get a full “play date” in the snow. And I can’t wait to see their snow people. Hopefully they will send me some pictures. No way I am driving in that stuff. Those skills went the way of my tiny 28 inch waist.
Now, onto music. I think I have had my fill. I listened to so much music over the last two weeks. Close to a hundred hours or so of music from five decades. So many pretty songs from different times of my life. And most songs brought back a memory of some kind. No “Heavy Metal” or “Acid Rock” and deep country (except for Ballads…love the ballads.).
One genre that I didn’t realize I like a lot was: Folk Music. Not Bob Dylan, even though I love a few of his songs and he is a Legend. But the Peter, Paul, and Mary’s, the New Christie Minstrels, Joan Baez, Joanie Mitchell, Pete Segar, Gordon Lightfoot, Carol King, Simon and Garfunkel, the list goes on and on. Never even ..wait, James Taylor ! How could I forget him? Cat Stevens? Yikes, I am leaving out bunches of folks.
“Puff the Magic Dragon” lived by the sea…those lyrics came back as quickly as: “she wore an itsy bitty teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini…” Then there were songs like: Lemon tree, don’t sit under the apple tree, and Tangerine Man ( Sorry, couldn’t resist the fruit motif).
And, it turns out, I like more of Bob Dylan’s songs, sung by other Artists than by him.
Some songs, like Neil Young’s “old man take a look at my life”, Cat Stevens: “Cats in the Cradle,” or Jim Croce’s; “time in a bottle”, well those mean different things to me now at this end of the ribbon of life. Mean mean Leroy Brown and the chorus leap to mind, as do the lyrics of: “Big Bad John,” and “the ode to Billy Joe Mcallister,”. So many songs that I didn’t realize were “Folk Songs.”
And the story woven by Bobby Goldsboro in his song: “Honey…” still breaks my heart. And he used to be in the Kingston Trio, yet another folk group. And the Lettermen have a song: “It’s a summer place” that bring back memories of my Mom, my girl at the time, and the innocence of being in love without having to pay bills, or rent, or have a job. LOL
So all these “Folk songs” from: “The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” to Helen Reddy’s: "I am Woman”, Anne Murray with a whole host of of songs, all of them were fun to listen too.
And now, the car guy that made me laugh out loud.
The guy drove up to FoodLion in his sparkling cherry fully restored 1968 Chevy Chevelle SuperSport. It was Showroom Gorgeous (and, I found out in the course of our conversation - he has won trophies and ribbons for his restoration). If you forgot what a 68 Chevy SuperSport looked like- here is one: Chevy supersport . Yeah, pretty!
So he has a placard that he puts in the back window of his car that reads:
“Fifty years from now, nobody is going to restore a Classic fifty year old Tesla.”
And that made me roll. The rant the guy went on about how drab and uninteresting modern cars are …well, he had me bent over double. At one point I told him that modern cars were way safer and you could survive a collision in one. He said:
“Oh yeah, the only way you will die in a Corolla, or Honda, is from boredom.”
It went like that the whole conversation. He said if it wasn’t for bench seats, Baby Boomers wouldn’t even exist. And if kids were named after where they were conceived, almost everyone over sixty five would be named: Chevy, Ford, Dodge, Buick, Plymouth, and for short people: Studebaker.
See what I mean? He made comments like that all the time. He said that one time way back in 1968, he had a Plymouth Fury II, that had so much power that: “…when I stepped on the gas, my girl’s skirt went up a few inches.”
How can you not laugh?
He also had a Fifty Seven Chevy, but he doesn’t drive that one much. He takes it to Shows, and sometimes for parades, but not on the road. He said it is the best work he ever did. He showed me some pictures from his wallet. It was gorgeous. I love the paint scheme, which was a two tone aqua marine and cream, with white interior. Lovely. Just lovely.
He said if he gets divorced, his wife can have the house, but he keeps the cars. He made me laugh again when he told me that, because he said his wife told him:
“Of course, you can keep the cars. After all, you always loved them more than me.”
So that was fun.
Okay everyone, have a great day. And keep your fingers crossed that the grandkids (and Kathy) get to play in the snow tomorrow morning! And that is all gone by supper time. The way snow should fall.
Smiles, Kevin
Emails from old people.(Kevin Hughes)
Author's Note: This is a typical kind of email Seventy something men like me, send to their friends and family. Most folks tell me my emails are too long, and only folks my age would have the time, patience and will...to finish reading it. So here is what an ordinary email looks like from someone in their mid seventies to their friends. Just a conversation starter.
*****
Aloha All,
So we are going to get snow. We haven’t had more than a dusting of snow in over a decade. Sadly, the forecast went from having snow for three days down to just twelve hours. And most of those hours are at night! Snow from 9PM until around 3 AM. That’s it. But it might be more than two inches. That, my friends, is enough for children to make tiny snow people, and if they can find a hill (hills around here are rarer than a gall bladder in a seventy year old) they can even get in a sled ride …or two.
The snow is supposed to be gone by Wednesday Afternoon. Sigh. But at least the kids will get the morning to play in it. I will stay inside and just look at it. My childhood and HS days in Cleveland were enough for the snow to show its ugly side.
I do love walking in freshly falling snow…but that is out of the question this time. No boots, bad calf, and a fall at my age, changes my insurance premiums!
I just hope the kids get a full “play date” in the snow. And I can’t wait to see their snow people. Hopefully they will send me some pictures. No way I am driving in that stuff. Those skills went the way of my tiny 28 inch waist.
Now, onto music. I think I have had my fill. I listened to so much music over the last two weeks. Close to a hundred hours or so of music from five decades. So many pretty songs from different times of my life. And most songs brought back a memory of some kind. No “Heavy Metal” or “Acid Rock” and deep country (except for Ballads…love the ballads.).
One genre that I didn’t realize I like a lot was: Folk Music. Not Bob Dylan, even though I love a few of his songs and he is a Legend. But the Peter, Paul, and Mary’s, the New Christie Minstrels, Joan Baez, Joanie Mitchell, Pete Segar, Gordon Lightfoot, Carol King, Simon and Garfunkel, the list goes on and on. Never even ..wait, James Taylor ! How could I forget him? Cat Stevens? Yikes, I am leaving out bunches of folks.
“Puff the Magic Dragon” lived by the sea…those lyrics came back as quickly as: “she wore an itsy bitty teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini…” Then there were songs like: Lemon tree, don’t sit under the apple tree, and Tangerine Man ( Sorry, couldn’t resist the fruit motif).
And, it turns out, I like more of Bob Dylan’s songs, sung by other Artists than by him.
Some songs, like Neil Young’s “old man take a look at my life”, Cat Stevens: “Cats in the Cradle,” or Jim Croce’s; “time in a bottle”, well those mean different things to me now at this end of the ribbon of life. Mean mean Leroy Brown and the chorus leap to mind, as do the lyrics of: “Big Bad John,” and “the ode to Billy Joe Mcallister,”. So many songs that I didn’t realize were “Folk Songs.”
And the story woven by Bobby Goldsboro in his song: “Honey…” still breaks my heart. And he used to be in the Kingston Trio, yet another folk group. And the Lettermen have a song: “It’s a summer place” that bring back memories of my Mom, my girl at the time, and the innocence of being in love without having to pay bills, or rent, or have a job. LOL
So all these “Folk songs” from: “The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” to Helen Reddy’s: "I am Woman”, Anne Murray with a whole host of of songs, all of them were fun to listen too.
And now, the car guy that made me laugh out loud.
The guy drove up to FoodLion in his sparkling cherry fully restored 1968 Chevy Chevelle SuperSport. It was Showroom Gorgeous (and, I found out in the course of our conversation - he has won trophies and ribbons for his restoration). If you forgot what a 68 Chevy SuperSport looked like- here is one: Chevy supersport . Yeah, pretty!
So he has a placard that he puts in the back window of his car that reads:
“Fifty years from now, nobody is going to restore a Classic fifty year old Tesla.”
And that made me roll. The rant the guy went on about how drab and uninteresting modern cars are …well, he had me bent over double. At one point I told him that modern cars were way safer and you could survive a collision in one. He said:
“Oh yeah, the only way you will die in a Corolla, or Honda, is from boredom.”
It went like that the whole conversation. He said if it wasn’t for bench seats, Baby Boomers wouldn’t even exist. And if kids were named after where they were conceived, almost everyone over sixty five would be named: Chevy, Ford, Dodge, Buick, Plymouth, and for short people: Studebaker.
See what I mean? He made comments like that all the time. He said that one time way back in 1968, he had a Plymouth Fury II, that had so much power that: “…when I stepped on the gas, my girl’s skirt went up a few inches.”
How can you not laugh?
He also had a Fifty Seven Chevy, but he doesn’t drive that one much. He takes it to Shows, and sometimes for parades, but not on the road. He said it is the best work he ever did. He showed me some pictures from his wallet. It was gorgeous. I love the paint scheme, which was a two tone aqua marine and cream, with white interior. Lovely. Just lovely.
He said if he gets divorced, his wife can have the house, but he keeps the cars. He made me laugh again when he told me that, because he said his wife told him:
“Of course, you can keep the cars. After all, you always loved them more than me.”
So that was fun.
Okay everyone, have a great day. And keep your fingers crossed that the grandkids (and Kathy) get to play in the snow tomorrow morning! And that is all gone by supper time. The way snow should fall.
Smiles, Kevin
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Denise Arnault
01/21/2025At 75 my opinions on this piece may be skewed ;) as shown by my age and use of typographical emojis.
I have noticed that younger readers, as a group although as with any group there are exceptions, tend to not want to read something that is more than a couple of paragraphs. I have tried to decide how I feel about that and what I might want to do about that as a writer.
My stories all turn out to be rather long. I believe that I need all the words to convey the information that the story needs, but I could be wrong. I've considered serializing into multiple shorter short stories, but that does not really attract me. Side note: Amazon tried to make money doing that with Vella and has pulled out of that market.
Bottom line, I want to tell my stories but I also want readers to enjoy reading them. There must be a balance some where.
I do enjoy reading your stories! At least your style has one fan!
Help Us Understand What's Happening
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Kevin Hughes
01/21/2025Aloha Denise,
You are a tad older than me, but have found the same experiences. It isn't just you, Science shows that college graduates now haven't finished a single book from cover to cover. Attention spans are short, very short, and information is mistaken as knowledge. But they live in a world where moving that fast is just part of life. And reading cursive is now a skill in demand for folks trying to read old fashioned letters for their Research. LOL.
Of course, nobody could read my cursive to begin with, despite the Nun's best efforts. I saw a little podcast the other day, where a guy went to a Wedding where nobody was allowed to have a cell phone. He said it was awkward standing around with 200 other people, without a phone to distract or entertain him. He said that they all knew each other, but only in sound bites or texts.
A girl that used to work at the grocery store told me she yelled at her Mom for calling her! "Mom, can't you just text me like normal people? If you want to call, text me, and I will tell you when I can talk."
Times, they are a changing. My Kathy has Social Media, and sometimes she falls down that rabbit hole. But what can I say? I am watching my sailing channels, science channels, or math channels on YouTube. LOL
Smiles, Kevin the long winded
Smiles, Kevin
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