Old Age Driver

I can't believe the problems I'm having, getting my license renewed.  If this is going to be every two years maybe I'll just retire.  Go into an old folks home and let someone else drive me around.  The eye doctor failed to fill out something and no driving test again.  A drive to Cape and the doctor was on vacation.
Is this supposed to tell me something?  If my mind is going this is not helping it, it's just helping the going
along. 

I'd think with all the trouble they've caused me they wouldn't give me much of a test but I don't think that
will happen.  They marked a x accross the paper the doctor had filled out and gave me another one.  Now
he's got to start all over.  His office could have looked up the information and finish filling it out but now I
have to wait and wonder "Am I going to pass that test".  I only have to the 28th of this month.

I haven't seen better on the right side for years.  If I couldn't see it on the left, I just said it was on the right.
Maybe I should not have been honest this time around but then maybe I'm getting paid back for not being
honest all these years.  There's got to be an end to this eventually.

Driver's Test

I have to go and take another driver's test.  I just took one four years ago and after this one expires
I'll probably have to take one every two years.  I can remember driving without a license but I'd be
afraid to do that now but I did it a long time before I got my license.  When Bill was playing in bars
in the Quad-Cities sometimes it was safer for me to drive home without a license than for him to drive
with one. 

One day he bought the second car and most of the time he left the new one at home, drove the old
one to work.  If I wanted to go to the store or to the laundermat, I just got in the car and drove with-
out a license.  I must have had more nerve then than now.  I would not do that today.  If I don't pass
my driving test, I'll be stuck back in the boonies.  I'll have to sell this place and find a new place to
live. 

High School Reunion

Saturday I went to a Joppa High School Reuion.   It was for anyone who had gone to school there.  There wasn't many there that had gone the four years I had gone.  There was only  three others that had been in my class.  It made me think of all the ones that are no longer living and they were so much a part of my
life in those four years.  Even though the school is sitting on the same ground, it is not the building that I walked across the stage to receive my diploma. 

I remember the laughter the friends, the teachers, the lessons.  Was life really that simple back then?
It really was a different age.  I have a lot of good memories of my high-school years.  I remember the
way we were back then, good friends and good times.

Ugly Feet

This morning I put on sandals, just straps to go to church and I thought of when Dad took  me to get my dress shoes for graduation.  I tried on different shoes but the clerk was very specific about what kind of shoes I should get.  At first I said I'd like  heels but he said "white heels should only be worn for formal evening wear.  So then I said I'd like sandals with straps.  Then he said "No, you should only wear them when you have pretty feet and you  shouldn't wear them.  I thought "Well he's telling me I have ugly feet."
I ended up buying wedge heels with just the toe out and a strap around the heel.  They covered up most of my foot so I guess he thought they covered up most of my ugly feet.  If that happened today I would say  I'm spending my money and I'll buy what kind of shoes I want.

Driver's License

Yesterday I went to take my driver's test but I didn't pass the eye test.  They made me angry, they didn't explain anything.  Just gave me a paper for my eye doctor to fill out.  Now if they ever let me take my test it's going to be harder to stay calm while I'm driving one of those women around.  Well for eighty years I've run into things I don't understand so why should I think this life here will ever be different.  Maybe my eye
doctor will fill the paper out and sent it back and they'll let me take my test and maybe I'll be able to drive
for the next four years, but maybe after four more years I'll just move somewhere where I won't have to drive.  I'm not ready for an old folks home but maybe my body thinks it is.

Strawberries On The Manley Farm

As long as I could remember when I was young, Daddy raised strawberries.  He took them to Grand Chain and shipped them on the train.  I don't know where they went but I bet that who ever got to eat them was happy to get them.   Strawberries were much sweeter back then but not so large.  I think they tried to make them larger and took the taste out.  Mom always made strawberry shortcake and it was so delicious.
The last time I helped to work in the strawberries was the spring after Bill and I were married and he took me by Dad's of the morning as he went to work.  These days when I'm putting strawberries in the freezer I think of how many berries I've picked.

Gettin' Old

I was getting new books ready to be put on the shelves in the library and I saw a book entitled "Gettin' Old Ain't For Wimps".  One Sunday coming out of the church a man made a remark very similar.  He's gone in to a home for elderly now and I don't think he's in good health.  My 80th birthday is coming up soon and I wonder what happened to those eighty years?  Did I really live them?  Maybe I need to read that book, maybe I'll learn something from it.