Last Saturday I attended my Spinning Guild meeting. It has been a long time since I last attended, and much longer still since I attended regularly. But with my improving health, I thought it was time to catch up with old friends. And so I went.
I arrived late; the meeting portion was already over. Looking around the room, I saw all sorts of people that I was very happy to see! Carol, Janet, Dave, Karen, Elena, Lisa, Mariko, etc... I was surprised at how happy they appeared to be to have me turn up. There were hugs all around.
I've really aged in the last year. Others tell me that I'm really no different than I used to be, and that I look great, but I know the difference. I've been attributing it to severe illness although Mom pointed out to me at one point that I was over 50 and what did I expect? I don't know, but my face is starting to sport wrinkles that the make-up doesn't hide.
On the other hand, I've come close not to aging, so I appreciate being here at all. But all the same...
This was far from my mind as I entered the GLASG meeting. But again, it's been a long time since I went at all, and even longer since I went with a clear head. When I started attending fiber arts guild meetings, I was amongst the young crowd; cool and different in my early 30s. I really liked the "old" people, but didn't have all that much to do with them. I found my niche of friends and that was it.
But this time was different. As I found my same old niche, I looked around the room with shock. I was not part of the young, cool crowd any more. Nor were my friends. Some time over the intervening years, we've grown up and we're the "old people" there now. The - ahem - mature ones. The ones with all the experience, time, and money to actually make our fiber arts come to life. I remember when we were cash-poor working people (or looking for work) and had to be very creative to make our dollars stretch. No more.
We have property, equipment, and we have so much fiber on hand at our respective homes that we don't have to buy stuff at every meeting. We're old. We're established. Oy.
As I settled in with my friends and observed the young ones chattering happily away in their own groups scattered across the meeting room, I mentioned all of this to my crowd. As usual, Dave had the perfect sentence to sum the situation up.
He said, "Yes. We're so old that when I am sarcastic with [the others], they don't know that I am being sarcastic. They just think I'm mean."
Oh. My. Gawd.
* * * * *
I shared with the group my story about Anne and the old men at her new home. They were all intrigued and thought it was very funny. However, Lisa took exception to the characterization of Anne, with her 80-year-old neighbor being one of "robbing the cradle."
"If she gets together with him," Lisa retored, "she's not robbing the cradle. She's doing the cabana boy.
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3 comments:
lol..Don't have children. They age you fast and add grey hairs for their good measure, but insist it's for you to look "distinguished"..I say Poppycock!!
I know what you mean. I've been working at the same place for almost 22 years. I was a baby of 25 when I started. I used to be intimidated by the "old timers." Now I AM an old timer and the young ones are intimidated by me (until they get to know me--then they just think I'm nuts, but in a good way! :-))
Enroll in school and see how "old" you feel. The night the world knew Obama was going to be our next president,our class discussed it and talked about the possibility of attempts of assasination and how horrible that would be. I mentioned J.F. Kennedy's and how I remember seeing that on TV....oh their eyes got big and someone said oh I remember being taught that in school and suddenly the focus was on me and what I remembered....HEY, I said, I was only 8 when that happened...boy did I feel old!!! But guess what? Out of a class of 35 students to begin with, 16 of us stayed till the end....and the 4 "older" students, all walked out of there with A's. So Im beginning to see older IS better in so many ways!!
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