As I age, it’s important for me to know what my net worth is at the present time and, hopefully, find ways of growing it as I move into my senior years. It will be a shame if I get to be an old fellow and run out of capital. Recently, I’ve taken some big …
One word can change a life. My moment was over 50 years ago. I had screwed up again. Heavy consequences were piling up on me. I was scared. I chose to hide out where no one could find me. But me. And one other person: Professor Frank Tate, my best friend and …
My life is great if I don’t get in my way. That’s a big “if.” Here are a few of the ways I can screw up: I think I know what other people are thinking. I’m wrong most of the time. Okay, all of the time. I cogitate on what I’ve done wrong today or 30 …
Let’s pretend automobile drivers crank up their windows by hand. And wing windows are still in fashion. Let’s pretend there are only three television channels to choose from, all of which require sophisticated rabbit-ear adjustments. And aluminum foil is still a viable …
I have an old friend, Sam, who writes for the paper up in Virginia City. He visits me sometimes late at night. I don’t invite him. He just shows up to pass on his two cents of corny wisdom. A few months ago, I couldn’t fall asleep thinking about my pack of troubles. Sam …
Do you have times when your days, and then weeks, become hazy? They slip by without stirring up much memorable stuff. It’s like when I drive the same route from home to the grocery store, and I arrive without recalling much of the trip. So I got to wondering, how can I bring …
Strange. I’m falling in love with all these old folks. Most of my life, I paid no attention to those 70-, 80- and 90-year-olds who kept getting in my way. (Can’t they walk a little faster in the grocery store? Hey, you don’t need to come to a complete stop before taking a …
I learned a great lesson last week in a Holiday Inn bathtub: Don’t be sucked into situations I can’t escape. I had worked all day in a small Midwestern town. Not as long and hard as I used to, but I managed to exhaust my 77-year-old muscles and bones. Actually, I was …
One of the many wonderful things about aging is we can make a big ruckus about some tiny thing and no one pays any attention. Naturally, that brings me to why aspirin companies put big balls of cotton into little bottles of low-dose aspirin. My hunch is a 27-year-old Harvard …
My work in CONNECTIONS has provided great emotional rewards. Each gathering expands my personal relationships and gives me a cleaner window into understanding how people handle this whole aging thing. If someone volunteers to tell a story about themselves, it generally …
