Halloween and little kids brought back many fond memories

DUANESBURG — As we pulled into the parking lot of the Chuck Wagon Diner on Tuesday, Oct. 29, the sun was nowhere to be seen. Daylight Saving Time ends on Nov. 3 so that will help lighten up next week’s drive. Should be at least a little less dark.

It is really the darkness at 5 in the afternoon that gets our attention; it is a long way from sunset at 8:30 p.m. in June! Not only that, the fall foliage here in the Hilltowns is past peak. It is over.

A couple more warm days of Indian Summer ended October and started November. One of those warm days covered Halloween this year. That is good.

It is always fun to see the little kids get all excited in their scary costumes and run around “trick or treating” in search of candy. Halloween and little kids brought back many fond memories of times gone by for the OMOTM.

We remembered carving pumpkins for our children, then they “helped” us carve the pumpkin, and finally they did it all by themselves. At the end, they were pretty darn good.

As we grew older, we kept the spirit of Halloween going with adult costume parties. We all have  noted the great big skeletons of various scary animals and scary people that seem to be very popular these days. They are huge! Some of the decorations are as elaborate, or even more so, than what we see at Christmas time.

Hilltown bikers

At one table, an OF was heard to comment that he has started to winterize his motorcycles. Yes he has more than one. This prompted a rather extended conversation regarding motorcycles. Who has them?  Do they still ride? What kind? Do you have more than one, how many? Who had a sidecar?

Now remember, we are talking about the OMOTM present at today's breakfast. The question was asked, “How many OFs currently own, or used to own, motorcycles?

 I was not prepared for a couple of the answers. Why? A little background info is in order here.

A couple of weeks ago, Oct. 17,  The Altamont Enterprise featured a great editorial titled, “Our March of Progress through life should not end in mere oblivion.” It was all about aging and how we deal with the many aspects of this process. Good and bad.

Two sentences, among many in the article, stood out to me. The first was, “Ageism is one of the last socially accepted prejudices.” ( Not a good thing.)

The other was, “Each of us can make an effort not to discriminate against others or, if we are old, against ourselves.” It was the last two words of that sentence that really grabbed my attention, “against ourselves.” I had never thought about discrimination from that perspective before.

I am guilty of that. Because, if I find myself being a little surprised that the OF I'm talking to is remembering when he had his motorcycle and was riding around the Hilltowns with his friends having fun, why do I find that unusual?

Do I really think that this 90-year-old OMOTM has been 90 years old his whole life? Intellectually, I know he was 20 years old, and did things all 20-year-olds do. I had a motor scooter, and a friend stored his motorcycle in my garage; it was licensed and I used it all the time.

So to get back to the OMOTM and their bikes. I found that at least half (probably more) of the OFs present owned and rode one or more motorcycles at one time or another during their lives. At least six OFs ride to this day.

So as I look around the room at my friends, these OMOTM, and see them as they are today, why do I have difficulty seeing them as young men with a full head of dark hair, with little or no extra weight on their muscular bodies?

Why? Because I am guilty of discrimination “against ourselves,” that's why. If some of them drove their antique automobiles to breakfast, my mind says: OK, old people have old cars, but ride new motorcycles? Why not?

Just because we are older, does that mean we can’t, or didn’t, ride a motorcycle? Just because we are older, does that justify saying or thinking, “Good for you, old man.”

See? That's discrimination, no matter who says it or thinks it. Because I’m one of them, and I thought it, I'm discriminating against myself. That will stop right now to the best of my ability.

All of this is not denying that, as we grow older, we are not what we used to be physically, even mentally. We don’t run and jump anymore; many of us wear hearing aids or wear glasses. As we grow old, we walk more slowly.

I know I am not as steady on my feet as I was, and my reactions are not nearly as fast as they were, which is why I do not drive when my daughter and son-in-law are around. They drive, because I asked them to. They are much better than I am.

But we are not invisible. We can contribute, we want to, we have a lot to offer. Discrimination, prejudicial comments, even self-inflicted, or coming externally, eventually wears us down; it diminishes us.

Breakfast with our fellow OMOTM friends, on the other hand, builds us up and brings us a little happiness, so with that in mind, I offer you this week’s list of breakfast attendees: Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Jake Lederman, Wayne Gaul, Ted Feurer, Michael Krazinski, George Washburn, Wm Lichliter, Frank A. Fuss, Roland Tozer, Frank Dees, Russ Pokorny, Jim Gardner, Warren Willsey, Marty Herzog, Jake Herzog, Pastor Jay Francis, Glenn Patterson, Roger Shafer, Mark Traver, Joe Rack, Paul Whitbeck, Paul Guiton, Bob Donnelly, Dave Hodgetts, John Williams, Duncan Bellinger, Lou Schenck, Jack Norray, Gerry Cross,  John Jazz, Dick Dexter, Herb Bahrmann, Henry Whipple, Bill Coton, and me.