Aging gracefully while living on the edge
Editor’s note: Please welcome Jan Hickenlooper Aboussafy to the fold as a guest columnist for The Herald. She’ll be amusing us with her adventures from time to time.
Someone once told me the only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth of the hole. At 65 years old, my husband and I felt we were getting into an everdeepening rut.
We were starting to worry that the grave might be close enough that we should maybe stop buying green bananas. For many of us senior citizens, as you age you start to limit you activities only to things you are comfortable and familiar with. We were embracing life like a couple of old dogs by a warm fire.
Every week, The Penticton Herald runs a listing of upcoming community events. On a whim, my husband and I, in a bold attempt to exit our cozy little rut, decided to attend a few of these activities. Some of the choices were really outside of the box for us.
Branching out did not happen without a certain amount of trepidation as we entered the arena of the unknown. We have attended: a Sikh festival, the speakers’ series at the local college, craft shows, community theatre, a salmon spawning presentation, a hand-painted animated film, a gallery walk, and other activities.
Each time we did something new, we got less nervous. As a bonus, we met some very nice people along the way.
Our latest adventure was to Tugs Tap House to hear six different performers sing three songs each. The $5 cover charge includes a complimentary beer from the evening’s sponsor, Highway 97 Brewery.
First up was a fellow doing covers of Neil Young. Next up was a girl with such a lovely voice we felt sorry that she only sang three songs.
The next entertainer turned out to be a budding comedian, a pleasant surprise. When I say budding, I mean green as grass.- He was a restaurant cook by day and comedian by night.
I admire anyone who can get up in front of a crowd and tell jokes without the help of at least a dozen beers down their throat.
Unfortunately, the youthful group sitting closest to him was playing pool and drinking beer, therefore not laughing at many of his jokes.
His closing joke was funny in a slightly disgusting way. It might have been the effect of the beer but it made us burst out laughing. The comedian looked around the crowd until he spotted us and thanked us for laughing at his joke. However, the next words out of his mouth and into the live the microphone were, “How come the two oldest people in the room are the only ones who got that joke and laughed?”
We looked behind us at the rest of crowd and realized that yes, in fact, we were by far the oldest people in the room. When did we become the oldest people in the room?
After this shocking revelation I realized we had not only stepped out of our rut, we had stepped into old age all in one evening!
The comic came over and thanked us again, mentioning it was his first time ever doing stand up and that he appreciated our support. He felt like his routine wasn’t going as well as he had hoped until he heard our laughter at his final joke. I told him that’s what we old folks do: support each other because we were young once,
We had so much fun that we intend to go back again. We are going to live dangerously and risk being the oldest people in the room again and again.
Life is so much better living on the edge of the rut than in it.
Jan Hickenlooper Aboussafy is happily test driving retirement in Penticton after 42 years in Alberta. Positive thinking, humour and insights are passions she likes to share.