We don’t just sit around, doctors are our social life
On Tuesday, a couple days after the launch of the “Flying Eagle,” the Old Men of the Mountain met at the Middleburgh Diner in Middleburgh. It was going to be a hot day and as the OFs arrived many mentioned the morning drive had the look and feel that it was going to be a tad uncomfortable.
The early conversation was about the launch and the OFs who attended this occasion mentioned what a good time they had; the spread the host put on was the quintessence of elegance. Especially the chocolate-white cake. Some think that all OFs do is sit in rocking chairs.
Even on this — what is going to be a hot day — some of the OFs are getting together to help another OF remove some bushings from a shaft of a Model T the OF is restoring. Others also have places to go and things to do even if it is only another doctor’s appointment.
An OF said, and it has been said before, doctors are our social life. So just melting away in a chair with the eyes becoming watery watching TV is not really happening with many OFs.
One OF reported that he is going in to have a cancer removed from his left eyelid. That did not sound like fun to the rest of the OFs.
What steady hands some of these doctors must have to work in such sensitive areas and not think much about it. Having cancer in such a location points up the importance of wearing sunglasses, even at a young age.
Some OFs have had Mohs surgery to remove cancer on their ears. This scribe guesses that it is either large-brimmed hats or sunscreen care as ear muffs in the summer seems a little impractical.
House on a hill
Outside the window of the Middleburgh Diner is a view toward Fultonham along Route 30, but the OFs can’t see very far because there is quite a hill in the way across the flats. On top of this hill is a home.
One OF inquired, “How in the world to they get to this place?”
It must be a large place to stand out like it does on top of this hill with a great view. The local OFs got into a discussion on how to get to the road that goes up that mountain.
Then came another question: “How do the owners do it in the winter time?”
Are cars, and car tires better now than in the past when the OFs remember putting chains on the ole Model A to get around in the winter? Now the TV ads show cars charging through snow bumper deep with snow flying by the car like the wake of water from a boat hightailing across a lake.
Yeah, but notice those cars are in Colorado where the snow is so dry you can clean your car off with a foot of snow on it just by blowing it off. Do the same shot in the Northeast where a good soggy snow is tough to pick up with a snow shovel.
Laundry advice: Keep the kids close by
The OFs started talking a little bit about doing the laundry. One OF (a farmer OF) said one of the reasons farmers had so many kids is so they could help with the chores.
Now, as the OF and the wife are old, the kids pick up their laundry and bring it back. They don’t have to worry about laundry and the same thing happens with getting groceries.
A second OF said his kids have settled all over the country, and even out of the country, and he said the other OF was lucky to have his kids around. This second OF said he had to learn to do laundry himself.
He said he finally got the laundry to the point where it is not that bad to wash. His sheets are all white, his underwear is all white; his socks are just black or white; he wears mostly jeans, and jean-type shirts. The OF says he does have some decent clothes if he has some place important to go, but for the most part he has this laundry chore knocked.
An OF said his wife does the laundry and he has no clue how to go about doing it. Everything in the laundry room is in piles; this can’t go here because of the fabric — even though it is the same fabric color as that over there.
This can be washed in cold water, and that stack can be hot water, and that pile has to be warm water. The OF said the dials and buttons on the washer and dryer are like the controls on a 747. The OF said, if he had to do the laundry, everything would come out shrunk and pink.
One OF mentioned it is right about having kids around when we OFs get so we can’t drive, and become a little feeble and can’t get around without canes or walkers. Yep, when the kids were kids, we carried them on our hips for couple of years, then hauled them hither and yon for quite a few years, to birthday parties, to the movies, to ball games, to school events, etc., etc.
“Oh yeah,” one OF said, “And many times have to find a place to go and hang out until the little darlings’ social event was over.”
“Ya know,” another OF said, “I would give anything to get those years back. It’s funny now that these same little darlings are hauling us off to doctor appointments and they have to hang out in the waiting room until the appointment is over.”
Maybe in the future when, like the Eskimos, we get to a point we are such a burden we would all be placed aboard a spaceship and shot toward the sun. That would free up space in cemeteries, and we would be much closer to heaven when the time came.
Those OFs who are not keen on the spaceship idea, yet came to the Middleburgh Diner in Middleburgh to have a nice breakfast amongst the morbid conversations, were: Miner Stevens, Bill Bartholomew, Roger Chapman, Bill Lichliter, Pete Whitbeck, Dave Williams, J-J (a young visitor who helped with the service), George Washburn, Robie Osterman, Roger Chapman, John Rossmann, Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Rev. Jay Francis, Lou Schenck, Jack Norray, Mace Porter, Gerry Irwin, Jake Lederman, Ted Feurer, Wayne Gaul, Duncan Bellinger, Herb Sawotka, Art Frament, Ray Kennedy, Mike Willsey, Gerry Chartier, Elwood Vanderbilt, Rich Vanderbilt, Harold Grippen, and me.