Finding oneself old ranks among life’s most astounding events. For me, it comes as staggering surprise to discover myself 80.
Yet next week this discovery will be mine. Unfamiliar as it sounds, I will have to acknowledge the fact: “I am 80.”
Category Archives: Articles
Registry Photo
I’m mad enough to sue the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. No agency should be allowed to do what this one has done to me. And without any provocation on my part.
All I did was apply in person for yet another driver’s license. For that, the attendant made me take off my eye glasses. Then she snapped my photo, surely the worst in the annals of the Registry. If not, at least the worst ever taken of me.
By far.
Blown to Bits
If you lived in London, or were visiting there, you would be subject to at least 500 thousand cameras discreetly posted on many street corners in that huge city. Every day, photos of you and your companions would enter an archive of countless other pictures, available for the police and other authorities to consult.
Ryan Allen in Free Fall
After first painfully working his way up the winding staircase, the sick man was suddenly felled by a heart attack. Twisting and turning, he tumbled back down the steps.
The audience, of which I was a member, looked on in horror. Even if this dramatic action took place in an opera, the fall was done so realistically that we could only gasp.
The singer who managed this feat is Ryan Allen. He was playing the role of Horace in Marc Blitzstein’s 1949 opera Regina, based on Lillian Hellman’s play (and subsequent film) The Little Foxes.
Cole the Great
During my sophomore year in college, I lived in a dorm room with porous walls. This enabled me to hear much of what went on next door.
In this instance, that meant nothing scandalous, unless you considered the music of Cole Porter disreputable. For me, it was sheer pleasure to listen to the guys next door thump on the piano over and over, and join in belting out hit songs from “Kiss Me Kate”.
Love Affair
I have fallen in love. Again.
This time the object of my affection is at a distant remove from me. However, just a few weeks ago, she stood only some 30 yards out of reach. Since then she has returned home and remains more than three thousand miles away.
She is also almost forty years younger than I am, but what does age have to do with true love?
PCAs
Cynthia Primus, a resident of Boston, takes care of a woman who, in later life, is paralyzed and needs round-the-clock help. That involves turning her over three times each day, making sure she takes her meds, and trying to keep her as comfortable as possible.
Of clients like this one, Cynthia says: “You show them love,” she says. “If you are not nice to them, they get worse.”