Your Most Disturbing Realizations

^^^"Fortunate Son" is powerful as well.

^^^
It encapsulated a time where young, naive, wet-behind-the-ears kids who were fortunate to
come back home, but left behind their innocence.

At least it did for me.

LizzieMaine said:

We sang a lot of Foster in our grade-school "Music Appreciation" classes, but I doubt many kids today would recognize "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair" or "Old Folks at Home" today, and they certainly wouldn't recognize "Old Black Joe." And if they know "Camptown Races" at all, it's as the song Foghorn Leghorn sings. If, indeed, they have any idea who "Foghorn Leghorn" is.

Our "music book" was a strange thing in those classes. We learned a mix of nineteenth-century fake folk/minstrel songs like Foster wrote, a few sea chanteys, some patriotic pseduo-hymns like "My Country Tis Of Thee" and "America The Beautiful," and a whole bunch of World War I songs. I might not have known much about the Beatles, but I knew "A Long Way To Tipperary," "Pack Up Your Troubles," "There's A Long Long Trail," and a sanitized version of "Hinkey Dinkey Parley Voo" before I was ten years old.

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Nice!

LizzieMaine said:

I might not have known much about the Beatles, but I knew "A Long Way To Tipperary," "Pack Up Your Troubles," "There's A Long Long Trail," and a sanitized version of "Hinkey Dinkey Parley Voo" before I was ten years old.

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Learned 'em on my grandfather's lap! And I finally- in my late 50's- actually made it to Tipperary Ireland.... to be greeted by a sign reading, "You've come a long way.."

Fading Fast said:

I'm far from an expert (I'm the opposite of one), but I still think it's faster on the outside - where's Hudson Hawk when you need him .

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Cleaning out the garage. But You are correct. It is the conservation of angular momentum. If you keep the RPMs (angular velocity) constant, then linear velocity (or more correctly tangential velocity) increases with distance from the axis of rotation. So the needle travels faster on the edge of the record than it does near the center.

On the other hand, if you keep the linear velocity constant and decrease the radius of the arc, the Angular velocity/RPMs increase. This is why a figure skater spins faster when he/she pulls his/her arms in closer.

We had to learn "Old Folks At Home" in school because it was the state song.

One of my favorite Stephen Foster pieces.

I read somewhere that the worst moment in life comes when, after a lifetime of integrity, you finally decide to sell out, only to find that nobody is interested in buying.

Anna Ternheim released her new Album. And she is now covering the Backstreet Boys-song "Show me the meaning of being lonely"!

Should I feel old, now, after 16 years?

Inkstainedwretch said:

I read somewhere that the worst moment in life comes when, after a lifetime of integrity, you finally decide to sell out, only to find that nobody is interested in buying.

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This is sad, but maybe true; however, integrity has always been for oneself, not others anyway.

2jakes said:

Some realizations as you reach 60 or more:

1. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.
2. In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.
3. No one expects you to run--anywhere.
4. People call at 7 PM & ask: Did I wake you?
5. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.
6. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.
7. Things you buy now won’t get old.
8. You can live without sex but not your eye-glasses.
10. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to manageable size.
11. You can’t remember who posted this list.
12. Never take a sleeping pill & a laxative on the same night.
13. And you notice these are all in Big Print for your convenience.

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My Mom is 82 and nobody but her family cares a whit about her - but she knows her family cares deeply so, other than on a bad day, it doesn't bother her. But what I have learned by just observing is that non-acertive elderly people do not count in our culture / society. It's sad and probably says a lot about our culture, but my girlfriend and I will protect and defend her. Hence, whatever, she'll be okay and we make sure she knows how much we care so that, hopefully, she'll never let the negative society view overwhelm her.

A long and comprehensive study of history has taught me one invariable fact: The world is run by wealthy old men. Definitions of wealth have varied. Sometimes it's livestock, other times it's land, or public prestige or, as now, money. The vast bulk of whatever it is becomes concentrated in the hands of a small group of old men and they call the shots, even if some handsome young prince is the titular ruler. He answers to those old men.

Fading Fast said:

My Mom is 82 and nobody but her family cares a whit about her - but she knows her family cares deeply so, other than on a bad day, it doesn't bother her. But what I have learned by just observing is that non-acertive elderly people do not count in our culture / society. It's sad and probably says a lot about our culture, but my girlfriend and I will protect and defend her. Hence, whatever, she'll be okay and we make sure she knows how much we care so that, hopefully, she'll never let the negative society view overwhelm her.

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That’s the way it was with my mother. But in my case as she aged, she became
more assertive to the point that some of my sisters were very harsh/cruel with her.
When I took her for lunch to her favorite place, she would always give me directions
on how to get there even though I knew the location.
I felt that she had a need to show that she still was contributing something & I never minded.
When driving & coming to a traffic stop light she would say to hurry up otherwise
the light would change.
I would smile & tell her the day was so beautiful & there was no need to rush
things, adding that I would have more time to spend with her.
One day she confessed to me that one of the things that she loved about me
was that if she had scheduled a specific time for us to get together
& for what ever reason, she couldn’t make it. She always felt comfortable
knowing that I would not make a big deal about it or make her feel bad.
My sisters would get upset & yell at her in anger.
The last time before I left , I gave her a big hug & held her for a long time.
I didn’t know at the time, but the following week she went into a coma &
never recovered.
This was just recently. She was 92. I was fortunate & find comfort that I was able to
say goodbye to my mama.

My sincere sympathies for your loss Jake. It sounds like you and your mother were quite close.

With regards to, "...I would have more time to spend with her...", as my mother and my father-in-law began to develop health issues related to their advancing ages, my wife and I appointed ourselves to oversee their care and make sure they would each be taken care of properly and with respect. It was difficult at times, managing their various doctors' appointments and such around our work schedules, but now that they're gone we're grateful that we were able to spend that extra time with them.

2jakes said:

8. You can live without sex but not your eye-glasses.

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An elderly couple are enjoying an anniversary dinner together in a small tavern.

The husband leans over and asks his wife, "Do you remember the first time we had sex together over fifty years ago? We went behind this tavern where you leaned against the fence and I made love to you."

"Yes," she says, "I remember it well."

"OK," he says, "How about taking a stroll 'round there again and we can do it for old time's sake."

"Oooooooh Henry, you devil, that sounds like a good idea," she answers.

There's a police officer sitting in the next booth listening to all this, and having a chuckle to himself. He thinks, "I've got to see this...two old-timers having sex against a fence. I'll just keep an eye on them so there's no trouble."

So he follows them. They walk haltingly along, leaning on each other for support, aided by a walking sticks.

Finally they get to the back of the tavern and make their way to the fence. The old lady lifts her skirt, takes her knickers down and the old man drops his trousers.

She turns around and as she hangs on to the fence, the old man moves in.

Suddenly they erupt into the most furious sex that the watching policeman has ever seen. They are bucking and jumping like eighteen-year-olds. This goes on for about forty minutes!

She's yelling, "Ohhhh, God!"

He's hanging on to her hips for dear life. This is the most athletic sex imaginable.

Finally, they both collapse panting on the ground.

The policeman is amazed. He thinks he has learned something about life that he didn't know. He starts to think about his own aged parents and wonders whether they still have sex like this.

After about half an hour of lying on the ground recovering, the old couple struggle to their feet and put their clothes back on.

The policeman, still watching thinks, that was truly amazing, he was going like a train. I've got to ask him what his secret is.

As the couple pass, he says to them. "That was something else, you must have been having sex for about forty minutes. How do you manage it? You must have had fantastic life together. Is there some sort of secret?"
"No, there's no secret," the old man says, "except that fifty years ago that damn fence wasn't electrified."

8. You can Live without Sex but not your eye-glasses.
^^^^

Moral to the story:

Sometimes you don’t need "eye-glasses” to see the writing on the wall
to have a great time!

2jakes said:

8. You can Live without Sex but not your eye-glasses.
^^^^

Moral to the story:

Sometimes you don’t need "eye-glasses” to see the writing on the wall
to have a great time!

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Maybe not, but sometimes that "fine print" you didn't see can come back to haunt you.

Zombie_61 said:

Maybe not, but sometimes that "fine print" you didn't see can come back to haunt you.

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Read the fine print or "a-haunting-we-will-go"