old

MFFFC — The Amusement Park

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Gertrude reached over and squeezed Isadore’s hand. They were sitting on a bench at an amusement park and Gerty said to Izzy, “The grandchildren are having such a marvelous time enjoying all of the rides here in the park. I’m so happy our son and daughter invited us to join them today.”

“Yeah? With all these screaming and crying rugrats, I can barely hear myself think, much less hear what you’re saying to me. Some fun this is sitting on a bench with no shade in the sweltering sun,” Isadore said.

“Oh, come on, Izzy, don’t be such and old curmudgeon,” Gerty said. “Look at all of these marvelous rides. Remember how we used to love going on that big, wooden rollercoaster at Coney Island?”

“It hurts my knees just thinking about getting into that seat and the bouncing around makes my back hurt,” Izzy complained.

“How about that Tilt-a-Whirl ride and the one with the tall swings that go round and round at high speed?” Gerty said. “We used to laugh and have a great time in those rides.”

“If I got on any of those rides it would trigger my vertigo and I would probably end up throwing up all over you and everyone else.”

“The bumper cars, Izzy. They used to be your favorite ride,” Gerty said.

“Did you forget about me having to wear a neck brace for two weeks after that idiot teenager hit my bumper car from behind at full speed?” Izzy said.

“Oh, right. But surely you could still enjoy the giant Ferris wheel. That’s fairly tame,” Gerty said.

“Sitting on that hard seat would not be good for the hip replacement I had last year,” Izzy said.

“Izzy, isn’t there anything here at the amusement park that you enjoy?” Gerty asked.

“Yeah,” Izzy said. “I’ll enjoy it when our kids say it’s time to leave the amusement park and they pack up the grandkids into their minivan and we head home. The rugrats will be so exhausted that they’ll fall asleep right away in their car seats and then our son will drop us off at our house and I can lie down and take a nap.”

Written for Melissa’s Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge. Photo credit: Grace Ho on Unsplash.

Thursday Inspiration — Father and Son

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For this week’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, Jim Adams has asked us to write a post using the prompt word old, or going with an image of an old man that he posted. Just a few minutes ago, on the Classic Vinyl channel on SiriusXM, I heard a song by Cat Stevens from 1970 titled “Father and Son.” So I replaced Jim’s old man image with one I created on Bing Image Creator using the phrase, “A young man tells his elderly father that he’s leaving home to find himself.”

In this touching song, a father and son are having a conversation. The father is advising his son to stay home, find a girl and settle down. According to the father, who is now an old man, this is the path to happiness, and it worked for him. However, the son wants to leave and is feeling frustrated because his dad is not making any effort to understand why he wants to go or even listen to him.

Stevens made up the story, but his relationship with his own father, Stavros Georgiou, was an influence on the song. His dad owned a restaurant in London, and Cat (known to his dad as Steve) worked there as a waiter right up until he signed a record deal at age 17. Stavros was hoping his son would join the family business. “He was running a restaurant and I was a pop star, so I wasn’t following the path that he laid out. But we certainly didn’t have any antagonism between us. I loved him and he loved me,” Stevens said.

Stevens sings in a deeper register for the father’s lines, while using a higher one for those of the son. The dialogue is an interesting lyrical trick with the father and son expressing different perspectives on the situation.

In a 2020 interview, Stevens said, “The song is a testament to the differences we represent to each other, especially in age and traditions. Traditions have a big impact on our lives, and sometimes you’ve got to walk away.”

It's not time to make a change
Just relax, take it easy
You're still young, that's your fault
There's so much you have to know
Find a girl, settle down
If you want you can marry
Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy

I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy
To be calm when you've found something going on
But take your time, think a lot
Why, think of everything you've got
For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not

How can I try to explain? 'Cause when I do he turns away again
It's always been the same, same old story
From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen
Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away
I know, I have to go

It's not time to make a change (away, away, away)
Just sit down, take it slowly
You're still young, that's your fault (I know)
There's so much you have to go through (I have to make this decision)
Find a girl, settle down (alone)
If you want you can marry
Look at me (no)
I am old, but I'm happy

All the times that I cried (stay, stay, stay)
Keeping all the things I knew inside
It's hard, but it's harder to ignore it (why must you go)
(And make this decision?)
If they were right, I'd agree, but it's them they know not me (alone)
Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away
I know I have to go

WDP — Same As Me

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Daily writing prompt
What were your parents doing at your age?
View all responses

I’m old. Old like in my 70s. My father was 42 when I was born and my mother gave birth to me when she was 36. And I was the baby of our family.

When my mother was my age, my father was in his 80s. Both were retired and spending most of their time at home watching TV and reading. And waiting around for the Grim Reaper to show up.

Pretty much how my wife and I are spending our time these days.

SoCS — If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

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I’m a little confused by Linda G. Hill’s instructions for today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. First, she says that the prompt is “last thing that broke/you had to fix.” But, then she goes on to say that we should “think about the word that best describes the last thing that stopped working for you and use that word any way you’d like.”

So are we supposed to write about the last thing that actually broke that we had to fix? Or are we supposed to use the word that describes the last thing that stopped working and write about that word?

For example, if the last thing that broke that I had to fix was my toaster, should I write about that broken toaster and what I had to do to fix it?

Or, since my toaster is old, should I write about the word “old” because it describes the last thing that stopped working?

Do you see my dilemma here? Well, I guess I’ll do both.

The last thing I broke was my hip when I fell off a ladder. What did I have to do to fix it? I had to have emergency surgery for a partial hip replacement and go through nine-months and counting of physical therapy to fix it.

What word would I use to describe falling off a ladder and breaking my hip? I think it would either be “careless” or “stupid.”

Hear! Hear!

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As you may know if you’re a regular reader of my blog, I am almost deaf in my left ear due to surgery to a remove a growth in its middle ear (between the ear drum and the inner ear) back at the end of 2019. Recently, the hearing in my right ear seems to be diminishing rapidly. So I decided to look into getting hearing aids.

The first place I went to conducted a hearing test. The chart (audiogram) above shows the results of that test. The vertical (Y) axis on the left shows the volume of the sounds in decibels, from softest at the top to loudest at the bottom. The average decibel level of human speech is estimated to be between 55 and 65 decibels.

The horizontal (X) axis on the bottom shows the sound frequencies, from lowest (deepest) on the left to highest on the right. A typical adult male ranges from 80 to 180 Hz and a typical adult female ranges from 165 to 255 Hz. The green shaded area at the top shows what is generally considered to be “normal” hearing.

The line with the red circles represents the hearing in my “good” right ear. It’s in the mild to moderate hearing loss at the lower frequencies to severe at the higher frequencies. The line with the blue boxes represents the hearing (or lack thereof) in my left ear. At the higher frequencies, my hearing in that ear shows severe to profound hearing loss. Profound!

This coming week I’ll be looking at some different brands of hearing aids. There are a few that are specifically designed for severe or even profound hearing loss. So, we’ll see how that goes. Who knows? Maybe by the end of this month I’ll be wearing hearing aids. And while that should enable me to hear better, having to don hearing aids make me feel old. But then again, I am old. So there’s that.