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The Hazards and Joys of Modern Maturity
MATURITY IN THE MODERN WORLD -
The Paradoxes, Woes and Quirks of Modern Life
as Experienced by Elders
 
Maturity and American Medical Practices
Ouida's page - a story of survival
Dean Ornish, MD., on lifestyle
 
There's some good stuff by a number of women on the Poetry pages. And look at the Goddess sites. Not all of the followers of the Great Mother are young, you know! Ageless, sure, but not necessarily immature. Goddess can be another name for Woman - as in the page celebrating Women on Achievement. Also check out these People Meditations:   
 
Phyllis' pages - from her memoirs, now nearing completion. Read a few of her delightful, expressive essays chronicling her experiences.
Bucky's page - A memorial: poems and pictures
Harriet's page - From her reminiscences
Donald's page - From his reminiscences
Katie's page - From her reminiscences: excerpts from chapters 1 & 2 
Mary's page: Looking back on life, trying to understand - many writings   
 
Hey, you gotta go to Lil Phillips' poems! They're wry, funny, sometimes pained, often courageous. always relevant. She's dead now, AND she deserves to be made a women's poet laureate (in this editor's biased view).
 
Here's a definition of old age you can live with!:
 
Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.
Don't let anyone tell you you're getting old. Squash their toes with your rocker.
The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.
Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know "why" I look this way. I've travelled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.
Maturity means being emotionally and mentally healthy; it is that time when you know when to say yes and when to say no, and when to say"WHOOPEE!"
How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?
When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of algebra.
I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.
Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18.
One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change from being young. One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.
Age seldom arrives smoothly or quickly. It is more often a succession of jerks.
Yeah; being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.
Old age is when former classmates are so grey and wrinkled, and bald they don't recognize you.
If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you are old.
First you forget names, then you forget faces. Then you forget to pull up your zipper, then. oh my goodness, you forget to pull your zipper down!
 
And here's another set of old agey comments:
 
THINGS WE SAID IN 1959 . . .
"I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, a week's groceries will cost $20."
"Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long before $5000 will buy only a used one."
"If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous."
"Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?"
"The Government is wanting to get its hands on every-thing. Pretty soon it's going to be impossible to run a family business or farm."
"If they raise the minimum wage to $1, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store."
"When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 50 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage."
"Kids today are impossible. Those duck tail hair cuts make it impossible to stay groomed. Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair as long as the girls."
"Also, their music drives me wild. This 'Rock Around The Clock' thing is nothing but racket."
"I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying 'damn' in 'Gone With The Wind', it seems every movie has a 'hell' or a 'damn' in it."
"Also, it won't be long until couples are sleeping in the same bed in the movies. What is this world coming to?"
"Pretty soon you won't be able to buy a good 10 cent cigar."
"I read the other day where some scientist thinks it's possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the of the century.
"Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn't surprise me if someday they'll be making more than the president."
"Do you suppose television will ever reach our part of the country?"
"I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making electric type-writers now."
"It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet."
"It won't be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids just so they can both work."
"Marriage doesn't mean a thing any more, those Hollywood stars seem to be getting divorced at the drop of a hat."
"I'll tell you one thing. If my kid ever talks back to me, they won't be able to sit down for a week."
"Did you know the new church in town is allowing women to wear slacks to their service?"
"Next thing you know is, the government will start paying us not to grow crops."
"I'm just afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business."
"Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to congress."
"Why in the world would you want to send your daughter to college?
Isn't she going to get married? It would be different if she could be a doctor or a lawyer."
"I just hate to see the young people smoking. As I tell my kids, 'Don't take a cigarette from ANYONE. You never know what might be in it."
"The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on."
"There is no sense going to Memphis or Omaha anymore for a weekend. It costs nearly $15 a night to stay in a hotel."
"No one can afford to be sick any more, $35 a day in the hospital is too rich for my blood."
"If a few idiots want to risk their necks flying across the country that's fine, but nothing will ever replace trains."
"I don't know about you but if they raise the price of coffee to 15 cents, I'll just have to drink mine at home."
"If they think I'll pay 50 cents for a hair cut, forget it. I'll have my wife learn to cut hair."
"We won't be going out much any more. Our baby sitter informed us she wants 50 cents an hour. Kids think money grows on trees."
.....................
 
Did you like Robert Louis Stevenson when you were a kid? Take a look at this lovely tribute! And remember his Requiem poem for yourself! It never ceases to bring me to tears - yes, it did when I was much younger too! :
Requiem
 
UNDER the wide and starry sky  
Dig the grave and let me lie:  
Glad did I live and gladly die,  
 And I laid me down with a will.  
  
This be the verse you 'grave for me:          
Here he lies where he long'd to be;  
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
 
And check out this tribute to Robert Louis Stevenson, by M. G. van Rensselaer - taken from a "senior citizen" educational website. The tribute is charming, and its agistic profiling status as "educational" "for old folks" does not detract from its heartfelt love of the author! A lovely portrait of a truly spiritual man, in the best sense of the term.
 
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