What Does it Mean to be 80?
At the end of an email message
The question came:
What does it mean to be 80?
Yikes! Does she mean me?
No, it must be a rhetorical question.
I couldn’t possibly be that old.
Gone beyond senior citizen
To elderly, geriatric, an octogenarian?
Words and memories stir in my mind.
What does it mean to be 80?
A privilege and honor
To be loved by so many for so long.
To help my Finnish grandmother make pulla.
To learn to swim with Uncle Aaron.
To share ice cream cones with Cousin Shirley.
To go fishing with best friend Carol.
To ice skate with neighborhood kids.
To say “I do” to a love of more than 60 years.
To count, at birth, the fingers and toes
Of two perfect children.
To read stories to four grandchildren.
What does it mean to be 80?
Thankful that I lived in the time of
Dick and Jane, the books that taught me to read.
The Little Golden Books, The Pokey Little Puppy, The Little Red Hen
And others that taught me to love reading.
Library check out cards,
And the librarian who knew my name.
Hula hoops bouncing on hips of young and old alike.
Paper notes passed to each other in class.
We hoped the teacher wouldn’t notice.
Cap guns for playing “Cowboys and Indians.”
Roof antennas that brought us “Leave it to Beaver”
And “Father Knows Best.”
Bologna Sandwiches on Wonder Bread,
The lunchtime staple.
Cheese Wiz, the snack with orange Zarex drink.
Red Jello for dessert, almost every day.
Elvis Presley’s “Love me Tender”
Playing on a 45 record on the HiFi.
The soda fountain where we could order a vanilla Coke.
While the jukebox played Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line.”
Record hops on Friday night
When we slow-danced to Nat King Cole’s, “Mona Lisa.”
The phone booth where a call was ten cents
When I needed a ride from a friend.
Baby Oil for tanning in the sun
With aluminum foil on a cookie sheet under our chins.
Bobby socks, poodle skirts, pop-it beads,
Girdles, and waist cinchers.
The coronation of Elizabeth II in her gown
With the long train— seen on a neighbor’s TV.
A doctor who made house calls and gave
Penicillin shots, the new cure all.
The new polio vaccine allowing us to be
In crowds at swimming pools or go to movies in the summer.
Sputnik whirling overhead in the night sky.
Brown vs Board of Education
Ensuring integration in schools.
Friends from church joining the Freedom Riders.
Our youth group traveling to the Whitehouse,
Walking with signs as we marched for Civil Rights.
What does it mean to be 80?
It gives me joy to have:
Completed college on my own
Without family money, or support.
Taken a risk and gone to graduate school
With my husband, our baby, and no money.
Taught school and made a difference
For kids that were advanced, and kids
That struggled.
To have written a biology book
That made kids say: “Biology
Is my favorite class.”
Being 80 means learning a new vocabulary:
Bell’s palsy, cataracts, carpel tunnel,
Basal cell carcinoma, facet joint atrophy,
Iliotibial band inflammation, sacroiliac arthropathy,
Sciatica, tendonitis, arthritis, bulging discs,
Venous insufficiency, and more.
What does it mean to be 80?
Nature is even more important now.
Winter hanging in huge piles of snow on evergreen branches.
Spring unfurling new life
With bright daffodils, dandelions, and crocuses
Defying the snow and poking into the sun.
Summer hiking boots tramping familiar mountain trails or
Walking sandy shores with sparkling waves chasing
Sanderlings to and fro.
Fall with brilliant yellow aspen, squirrels, in the
Cool thin mountain air, storing nuts,
and views that take away breath.
After seven decades of changes in my world,
My family, my careers, and my physical abilities,
I take solace in the consistency of nature.
In chickadees that always will sing the same song,
In iris with the same delicate blue petals each spring,
In dragonflies hovering on translucent turquoise wings
Over marsh grasses in the summer heat.
As I complete my 8th decade, I know
The seasons will come and go again and again and again,
And I am thankful for this cycle of certainty, serenity, and peace.
