9/10/21 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: Some of our 8th grade boys enjoying their special cafeteria space!

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family:

Observations on turning 65:

-Medicare: I have now been designated by the federal government as old. Medicare is very confusing. Instead of one insurance card I now have three. I have my red, white and blue paper medicare card. Couldn’t the government spring for a laminator to make it plastic? Next I have my supplemental card. There are dozens of plans from dozens of insurance companies. Plan N from Atena, Plan G from UHC? Plan M from Mutual of Omaha? All get you to the donut hole in different ways. I still haven’t figured out what a donut hole is? Doesn’t sound as appealing as an actual donut! Then there is my Plan D prescription card. I need a bigger wallet!

Remembering Names: I am fortunate to work in a smaller school so I get to know everyone’s names pretty quickly. However at 65 and knowing some of the parents around here since they were children I sometimes call a student by their mother or father’s name. I also mix up siblings’ names sometimes. When I see someone outside of school from the many places I have worked in 50+ years (if you count working for my Dad at Deibels) that’s a whole lot of people. Jack Ryan, the legendary Bishop Hartley and St. Charles coach, in his later years, used to just call everyone, “Coach.” Sounds like a plan.

-Babbling: I have noticed that the older I get the longer my answer to any question has become. “Do you think we will have a lot of snow this winter,” someone may ask me. “You want to talk about snow,” I will say. “Back in ‘78 the snow was so high I needed a ladder to get outside my front door!” Exaggeration is a key part of a long answer. I have a story for every topic you can name and the older I get the less interested I am if you want to hear that story or not. I just want to get that story out there. 

-Aches and pains: When you are officially old you don’t have to have a reason to have a pain. I went to the doctor recently because of a burning, throbbing ache in my shoulder. Xray showed nothing. Go to physical therapy, he said. Get some exercises to help out. Today my shoulder hurts. Tomorrow it is my knee. But I have medicare so I can go to the doctor a lot now!

-Hair: I feel fortunate to still have a full head of hair on the top of my head. But the older I get the more hair grows in places one doesn’t necessarily want hair to grow. Why the ears? Why the nose? One advantage to wearing a mask is that my nose hair doesn’t show so much!

-The look: I am lucky to work in a school where people know me and know that I still have a brain in my head. But in other places I get the look. Ask anyone my age or older about it. It is the look that younger people give you when you check-out in line or when you ask a question. It is a look that combines pity with exasperation, condescension with impatience. “I’m dealing with an old person.” You can see that thought rattling around in their brain. Sometimes people talk slower. And louder. 

-The mirror: What mirror? They are banished. I wish I was a vampire!

-Clothes: Most of my clothes are older than my students.

-Driving: I’ve noticed that I look in my rearview mirror much more than I used to and all I see are cars bearing down on me from behind. Maybe it’s because I am doing 45 in the left lane of 315.

But, all kidding aside, I am lucky to be turning 65 with good health despite some aches and pains, a wonderful wife, 4 children, nine grandchildren, a great job and a new titanium bicycle that I am still agile enough to ride. I’ve done a lot, seen a lot, met a lot of people and have had a lot of adventures. God willing, there’s more of the same coming. Just at a slower pace and with new people I will just call “Coach.”



Jim Silcott