Comments on Chuck Woodbury's Roadside Journal: The Beav and Wally are old guys now

Hey...I think they look fine, and I'm a young ...

2009-08-17T20:57:45.536-07:00

Hey...I think they look fine, and I'm a young chick of 52! They look better than dead, and they look HAPPY....Happiness trumps alot of age!

Hey, thats right, we are all aging, some more grac...

2009-08-16T09:35:58.520-07:00

Hey, thats right, we are all aging, some more gracefully then other but,I attended my 40th HS reunion and if it wasn't for nametags with our HS picture on them, they would have been mostly strangers.
regarding the replaced hip, As my husband says to me"your factory warrenty has run out..but you haven't been recalled by your maker" How true.
Jean

What a great photo! I too watched these guys as a...

2009-08-15T16:44:20.012-07:00

What a great photo! I too watched these guys as a kid. As my first name is Ward, I can say without qualification that I could have retired 10 years earlier if I had a dime for every time someone said to me "You were awfully hard on the Beaver last night, Ward"! Somehow when June Cleaver uttered those words back in the 50s it seemed a bit less suggestive than it does these days. At least the censors thought so!!

Don In AZ, you're a very wise man...your respo...

2009-08-15T11:54:15.578-07:00

Don In AZ, you're a very wise man...your response to your son was great and so true. On my 50th birthday, a young 20 something said, "well lady, the sun's on your back from now on"...gee thanks! ;-) His comment wasn't nearly as cutting as my boss saying I was "circling the drain and couldn't learn it anyway" when I asked why I wasn't signed up for classes when they first brought Microsoft into the company. Funny, at 64 I feel young & refuse to go down w/o a fight! Nan

Shortly after I turned 50 I was having trouble wit...

2009-08-15T10:38:21.036-07:00

Shortly after I turned 50 I was having trouble with a hip that ended up having to be replaced with titanium. I was on a car trip with my oldest son when he said, "How does it feel dad that your warranty has expired and you are having to get replacement parts?" I thought about it for a minute and then told him, "Well there are things I can no longer do that I could do when I was your age, but then there are things I can do now that I could not do then because I did not have the time or wisdom then to do them. Getting older just means discovering new things that I did not have the time to deal with or enjoy when I was younger." I am 62 now.

Yes, it's a sad commentary about how we all ap...

2009-08-15T07:32:56.546-07:00

Yes, it's a sad commentary about how we all appear to age......
We tend to remember our Childhood friends as they were....and are shocked when we see that they in fact have grown up too. We see ourselves in the mirror every day, so it's more gradual, but I'd bet that our friends would be just a shocked.
Anyone go to a 30th High School Reunion?????
Thanks for the memories!!

Hey guy, those actors played those parts 45 or so ...

2009-08-15T06:38:04.338-07:00

Hey guy, those actors played those parts 45 or so years ago! What are we supposed to look like in our late 50's and 60's. Grow up and quit seeing yourself as a high school kid when you look in the mirror.

Most of our lives are spent as being old, so no sense being delusional and thinking we look like our high school year book pictures.

I know exactly how you feel! My 64 years smacked ...

2009-08-15T05:40:44.925-07:00

I know exactly how you feel! My 64 years smacked me in the jaw reading the obit of a 5th grade pal & listed amount survivors were his 7 grandchildren. My immediate reaction was, "he's not old enough to be a grandpa!" Then I thought of my three adult grandchildren...'nuf said! Love your column.
Nan

Reality takes some getting used to, but it never g...

2009-08-15T05:08:51.921-07:00

Reality takes some getting used to, but it never goes away. I agree that if one only looked in a mirror every ten years, that would cause a lot of distress.

I guess part of age is how you look at it. I have been watching those things around my eyes go from lines to grooves to ditches, but I'm the one who gives them meanings. Depending on how I feel that day, they can be signs of old age, strong survival skills or elderhood.

Hey Chuck, enjoy your stories on the RV life! How...

2009-08-15T04:53:02.771-07:00

Hey Chuck, enjoy your stories on the RV life! However, in this post, you sound very depressed! Think for a minute about the alternative to getting old. There is only one.
I am 58, so yes I grew up watching "The Beav", plus, since my last name is Mather, I was compared to him since that show came out. No, I do not look that old, but only because I took care of myself better. Those guys probably did some hard living! They were blessed with wealth early on, and probably enjoyed a life of plenty, however, we alone must live our life, and make those decisions which affect us more and more the older we get.
This is "reality" as you called it, and it is ours to make and it is ours to interpret anyway we choose.
Attitude is everything. In the spirit of the Anniversary of Woodstock, which I feel stands for what "our generation" was all about, "peace, love and happiness", I choose to be happy, peaceful and to love life, otherwise, why are we even here?