FUNNY OLD FOLKS

 It’s not vitamin pills or diet or exercise. I’m sure they help, but it’s something more than that.

 Old folks are now a whole new breed. Recently, I did a story about a 100 year old who went bowling on his birthday. He also lives alone, climbs a ladder to clean out his gutters and is nearly blind.

 Before that there was the 100 year old woman who got a tattoo on her birthday, and she plans on another one for her 101^st.

 Before that was the 100 year old who went to the Army, Navy and Air Force club on Main Street to celebrate his birthday because they had cheep beer that day.

 And there is the 98 year old woman who has lived in Lynn Valley 97 years and was the subject of a photo exhibit. She made everyone laugh. You would swear she was a stand up comic as well as a sweet heart.

 But there is this other guy I recently met. Harold Wolverton. He is only 90 and so a youngster. He wrote a letter to me asking if it was ok if he recorded stories out of my books for his friend who is 94 and blind.

  Yes, of course, I wrote back. You are the nicest guy in the world to do that, I said. And then I offered to record some myself.

 That led to us having coffee and then me taking him on a tour of the tv station. He laughs a lot. He was in the Canadian Air Force during the war fixing radar equipment. He lived through the bombing of London and has many stories, most of them gripping, exciting and even though death was everywhere, they are funny.

  I called him and said I had a CD of some stories and would mail them to him.

 No need, he said. He would pick it up from my home. He would be there in 20 minutes.

 In 15 minutes I stepped outside to see if I could see him driving down the block. I think it is wonderful that someone who is 90 is still driving. I am guessing he has an old Oldsmobile or Ford he bought new twenty years ago.

  I see nothing but a motorcycle coming down the street.  I hope he does not scare away old Harold.

  The motorcycle pulls up in front of me and the biker says hello.

  I am looking at 90 year old Harold straddling his growling bike.

 It’s only a 250 because the bigger bikes are too heavy to pick up, he said.  When he was younger he drove Harleys.

 Ninety years old and taking off his helmet and gloves.

 They are just garden gloves, he said. The leather ones cost too much.

 Ninety years old and driving from North Vancouver to Maple Ridge to visit his friend and deliver the CDs. Ninty years old and riding his motorcycle with CDs tucked inside his shirt.

  Ninety years old and saying riding is way too much fun to give it up just because he is ninety.

  And then he laughed. The same as the old bowler, he laughed, and the tattooed 100 year old, she laughed, and the guy getting cheap beer, he laughed, and the oldest resident of Lynn Valley, she laughed, and made others laugh.

  I know healthy foods and exercise help, but something a lot more fun is what really is pumping life into their lives.

Mike

mailto:orders@harbourpublishing.com