u/RongWa

I know we were teenagers but we're you involved in getting drafted? Do you remember the first Earth Day and Woodstock? Were these things even on your radar?

Your 16th birthday was a long time ago. Mine was special because on that day I got my driver's license. We were poor so getting a car for free never was in my future. So instead, my parents gave a new set of car keys. I was so proud. Dad would use it all day, I had it every night. I had to replace the gas I drove out and bring it home washed.

What made your 16th special?

Reddit is part of my routine. I enjoy reading and making the occasional comment.

Today is my 300th consecutive day on Reddit. That’s daily!

Thinking about it, I tried to list other things

That I have done daily the last 300 days. Hmmm, I haven’t

been that consistent doing anything else.

Maybe I need to branch out and seek out other avenues

to explore,

…Nah.

​

Dog in my shadow. Porch swings. No air conditioning. Grandmas outhouse. Grandpas 53 Ford with the bullet hole in the trunk lid…plugged with gum! Saturday night fights on the old black and white TV. Feeding the chickens.

I have an older sister 10 years my senior. She would take me on walks with my hand in in hers and her free hand carried a portable radio. Music and AM static, that was sounds of day.

Thinking back, the very first song I remember hearing on that radio was two actually, maybe three. Here they are.

1. Patricia

2. Silhouettes on the Shade

3. Little Yellow Polk a Dot Bikini

I'll never forget those early times walking with my sister.

Do you remember your first song?

Memories

Memories, are not to be forgotten or buried in the dust bin of our past, but lived! They are a gift that too many never open.

My grandparents took me and my brother and sister to the DuQoin State Fair around 1959. I remember the fairway, the caliope music, and grandma rocking the car on the ferris wheel when we stopped on top.

My favorite was seeing Jimmy Duranty perform on the stage. I don't remember his schtik but people everywhere were laughing. I was 5.

The road I was traveling was a beautiful soft path, through grassy plains it seemed it would last.

Suddenly I stopped and scratched my head, the path is now two and one was not tread.

I like an adventure but neither was me, I went inbetween, it was simple you see.

I didn't go far to see I chose wrong, as the wind started blowing I hurried along.

My decision had led to the bad things in life of which I indulged and suffered much strife.

I struggled and fought, there was the way. The one I abandoned that unfortunate day.

I've made my peace and forgiveness I found. The next time there's two, I wont go around.

When I was around four, I remember a TV show called Sing Along With Mitch. The lyrics would be on the screen with a bouncing ball over the word being sung. Remember?

GRIEF

Grief is to be consumed, not gorged upon. It must be digested for the healing to begin. Once fully absorbed, the impurities are filtered and eliminated, what is left are the jewels of memories. The nourishment of the good times remembered and pleasing thoughts they bring, coupled with time, softens the blow. Then, healing begins. A scar remains on your heart and is always tender, but when that scar is bumped, instead of sorrow, pleasant memories will begin to surface.

The older lady with stale perfume drags the fragrance of a toilet water corpse wherever she goes. Oblivious to the screwed-up faces of children and frowns cast in her direction, she slinks past as if on a dance floor searching for a partner for the next number. Where she came from or where she goes is a mystery to many but not to me. You see, I am old too. My partner was taken from me years before. I still wear the Old Spice she gave me in '72. It is pungent and it lingers like a fart in church. However, I do enjoy the screwed-up faces of the little brats and the frowns the young ones cast on me. They too will step into old shoes someday and ever so smoothly ask the smelly old lady for the next dance.

Too Soon

How did time pass slowly while the years passed fast? Life takes forever, I thought it would last.

When the trials came and cold winds blew, We turned the page and we made it through.

As one chapter ended, Another would pass. How could we know that it would all pass so fast?

As the pages flew by, we just didn’t see. The last chapter was closer than we dreamed it could be.

It wasn't about time, it wasn't about years, It wasn’t the anniversaries that made you so near.

It was the love that’s important, It was the love that was real. When you walked in the room, it’s the love that I’d feel.

The meals that we shared and the grand honeymoon…it's the memories not made, that were over too soon.

​

The older lady with stale perfume drags the fragrance of a toilet water corpse wherever she goes. Oblivious to the screwed-up faces of children and frowns cast in her direction, she slinks past as if on a dance floor searching for a partner for the next number. Where she came from or where she goes is a mystery to many but not to me. You see, I am old too. My partner was taken from me years before. I still wear the Old Spice she gave me in '72. It is pungent and it lingers like a fart in church. However, I do enjoy the screwed-up faces of the little brats and the frowns the young ones cast on me. They too will step into old shoes someday and ever so smoothly ask the smelly old lady for the next dance.