This section ponders (usually in a most-humorous way) the many and varied sides to getting older (Which, like gray hair, is always better than the alternative!!!)
The first selection, "Ode to Aging Gracefully" was presented to me by a dear friend, Kathy Smith, on the occasion of my 40th birthday; the author is unknown to me. If he or she were to recognize this as their work and let me know, I would be delighted to accord them proper credit for such a cute work!!!
The second selection, "Thanks for the Miseries" (Thank you, Bob Hope, for the title's inspiration!!!), was my response to the party thrown for me for my 40th birthday. This was, indeed, the "over-the-hill" party by which all others will, henceforth, be measured. My wife, at the time, was a home health aide, plus bought at least one of everything on the over-the-hill aisle at Arrow Party Store...I'll leave the props to your imagination, but must tell you these two details: Everyone, even our friends in their twenties at the time, dressed up as "old farts", complete with dowdy clothes, gray hair spray, and, in the case of Diane Newman, who even went so far as to paint varicose veins on her legs with an eyebrow pencil...were, uniformly, quite a sight. In addition, their "piece de resistance" was to provide for me a "Depends" which was to be my uniform for the remainder of the evening.
[ Ode to Aging Gracefully (or Here Lies My Youth) ]
[ Thanks for the Miseries ]