Elaine Hill Sunde
My nearly-80 age doesn’t trouble me, but the ages of my children are a shock.
David Robinson – 80…..Just a number for the lucky!!
When we were still in school in 1960, ready to graduate, I’m sure we all thought 40 was old. I join my fellow grads for our zoom meetings , and I realize though we may be older (I prefer to the word old), we still seem full of life and living.
As a young gay man who had not even heard that word let alone what
that life was like, I wasn’t prepared for what it was going to offer. As a child of an alcoholic I created a fantasy world and thought I would just burst out into the big world and lead a life like Doris Day & Rock Hudson did in the movies. I escaped as I sat in the theater and dreamed. This is not a request for a ‘pity’ party just to let you know rather where my mind was (or wasn’t) at the age of 17 and 18.
The army actually rescued me and I spent over a year in Vietnam under much better conditions than many did. This part of my life I shared with you in an earlier story. After Vietnam I stayed in the San Francisco bay area for about 35 years. Many of us have had good and bad marriages or relationships, and we hope we learn and become stronger for it. Relationships good and bad ultimately led me back to Wichita almost 20 years ago. Ironically, I couldn’t be happier in a place I couldn’t wait to get away from 60 plus years ago!.
This year’s virtual reunion has been my first, and it has brought another good chapter to my life. As a class of over 700 we could not possibly have all known one another, but with the website and the Zooms some are finding new friends and reconnecting with old friends.
Staying active and seeking what new experiences we can just adds to the quality and enjoyment of life.
Gene Carter – Thoughts on Being 80
An annoying part of aging that we all realize is diminished physical and mental energy. It takes longer to do anything and there are fewer good minutes in a day. Looking at things I have to do, should do, and would like to do, there are few of the latter that get attention.
Traveling to visit universities during the past few weeks, I figured out while talking with college youngsters that they, as we back then, cannot imagine being 50. Well, I cannot either and we’re both equidistant. But the great insight was realizing there IS a benefit to COVID. With pandemic we could do many of the same things, but under changed circumstances: communicating with friends, dining out, travelling, etc. Everything takes longer and isn’t quite as good. So COVID is a preview of aging if people are willing to learn from the experience.
Gene’s most recent stories for this website were about cars. See Cars I Have Loved, Part 1 and Part 2.
