What's your opinion? Does a 70 year old woman still have a chance of growing into a person she would like to be? Is she still going to frustrate her children everyday? Is she ever going to be a size 10? Can she make a living on her own with her paintings, and not have to rely on a really questionable Social Security system?


Bette Davis knew what she was talking about when she declared old age is no place for sissies! Your body begins to fall apart at 40, starting with your vision, At 50, your stomach suddenly cannot abide such foolishness as pizza at midnight. Oh, and yes, at 50, the boobs loose all sense of direction....what used to be up, is suddenly down!

At 60, your children begin to question your every move. I have always imagined the phone connections between my kids as glowing red and vibrating with panic. "She did WHAT!"....How soon will they take the car keys from me?

Now,  at 70,  I can readily admit to making some bad decisions in my life, and trust me, I've paid for them. But when you are searching for the person you want to be, there a millions of choices, and no one...I repeat NO ONE, can make all the right choices.

When it comes to intelligence, I truly believe I am not an idiot. After all, could an idiot raise 3 perfect children? I have a 7 year old grandson who, by the age of 10, will probably know more than I will ever know! Fair? Maybe not, but I'm the one who was put on this earth in 1941 so I could be a teenager in the 50s! As far as I am concerned, I'm the winner. Today's children may have all sorts of electronic things, their world may include flying to far off foreign countries, they may have vocabularies that include words that I have to look up in the dictionary.... but I had safe streets when walking home from a football game on a crisp October evening. There was Rock'n Roll music that we played on the jukebox that everyone could hear...no personal head phones needed. We had cool cars like the 57 Chevy, the Plymouth Fury, the Ford convertible. Frivolous? Probably, but on the other hand, we had teachers who cared, not just union members who are there for the paycheck. We had Mom waiting for us when we came home from school. We had youth groups at church where we spent every Sunday evening. We had a great life!

Yes, I am happy with the time and the manner in which I was raised. It is today that has me floundering. It seems like I am constantly making clumsy attempts to regain my balance. Maybe it is because I have the body of an old woman and the mind of a child....that has been insinuated by subtle and artful means!

But for now, Tuesday, October 25, 2011, I am going to paint, I am going to cook. And, I am going to think about Arch. He would have celebrated his 85th birthday today. Happy Birthday, Sweetie!