EDITOR’S NOTE: Here’s another one from the Geezer archives and with the Olympics just concluding – the perfect time to revisit this gem from February 21, 2018.
By Linda Shaffer
Ah, yes, here we are. What are we doing? Watching the Olympics. Why? Because we are old. Really? Yup. As it turns out, we are the ones who still love the Olympics. In fact, numbers for those 65 and over put us in the lead of folks who watch Olympics on television, online and etc.
Well, gosh. Who’d have thought we’d end up as the last and greatest supporters of this wonderful event? Not me but I have to say that I have loved the Olympics from the first time I saw them. Maybe that’s it. We started watching these games before most of this year’s athletes were born. Ouch. That sentence made me twitch a little.
In the beginning, I just kept track of the United States entries. I will admit that I cheered harder for them. I watched their scores. I hollered for them and I kept careful track of who had won the most medals for what. I stayed up late to watch events. I got up early to watch events. I even took joy in the running count of US medals.
Did I know who did what? Probably not. There were some years when names of athletes were important. They were on Wheaties boxes. What happened to the rest of the athletes? I don’t know. It has taken me until this year to even think of it.
Anyway, year after year, I watched the Olympics. Then I got old and finally learned that I’d been wrong all those years. Well, maybe not wrong… just misguided. I had learned an important lesson while aging.
If you are really, really good at something… it doesn’t matter where you were born. It does not matter where you train. It does not matter what your color is or who your parents were. It matters that you are who you are. And in the case of the Olympics… if you are there, representing your country, you are the best athlete of your sport.
Of course you know I’ll throw a wrench into this works now that I’ve let off steam. My Olympic opinions have quickly turned to us. Oh yeah. We can do this. I just feel it.
Senior Olympics. I know they are already out there but from what I’ve seen, they certainly scare me. I’m thinking of a different type of event. I have to do this because I can’t do what some of those folks do but many of my geezer friends are absolutely amazing when it comes to sports and physical fitness.
So… I’m thinking about events I could actually participate in. You know… get out there and be a winner. Last night I watched a dog show for rescue dogs on the Hallmark Channel. For three hours, I sat transfixed by the amazing talent in the classes of couch sitting, oldest, snoring, fetching, kissing, tail wiggling and talking. There were others but I settled on these as very possible for our tribe members.
When I think of our tribe members participating in a set of events like this, I find that I can’t stop laughing. This is us. There are a couple of events I would have to get out of. I can’t wiggle anything at this time of my life so count me out of that. I can talk… Lordy… Can I ever. I can couch sit and kiss but my fetching skills have been temporarily interrupted by my cane. I think Mr. S would have been an all-time champ at snoring but he’s lost so much weight taking care of me that he stopped snoring.
The Couch Potato category is just too easy to enter… which makes it all that harder to win this one. I would think we’d have to have a class for recliners, too because most of us live in one. We just don’t admit to it.
Gosh, we could have races for those who walk with a cane or walker. Sorry…you guys with electric wheelchairs will be in your own class. Manual wheelchair masters are in another class. When I was there my friends got me driving gloves so I could go faster. See? So many possibilities in a field of competition that we hadn’t thought of… or not. 🙂
Have a good week, Geezers.