Paul Simon was only 26 years old when he wrote “Old Friends” but he captured the essence of “being seventy”.
I’m beginning my third year of “being seventy” and I find I spend a lot of time looking at photographs and reflecting on the direction my life has taken.
I named this website My Strange Life as an homage to the line in the Grateful Dead song Truckin’.
Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me,
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been.Songwriters: Jerome J. Garcia / Philip Lesh / Robert C. Hunter / Robert Hall WeirTruckin’ lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
The song lyrics are meaningful, sometimes things come together and sometimes they fall apart. I learned that reminiscence and life review are natural coping mechanisms to the travails of aging and realizing that it is terribly strange to be seventy (or seventy two).
Old friends, old friends,
Sat on their park bench like bookends
A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the round toes
of the high shoes of the old friendsOld friends, winter companions, the old men
Lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sun
The sounds of the city sifting through trees
Settles like dust on the shoulders of the old friendsCan you imagine us years from today,
Sharing a park bench quietly
How terribly strange to be seventyOld friends, memory brushes the same years,
Silently sharing the same fearsA time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence
A time of confidencesLong ago it must be
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They’re all that’s left youSongwriters: Paul SimonOld Friends lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
I find it truly strange that I don’t feel like an old man. My body feels it, but my mind is stuck in an earlier time. However if there is any doubt, I have a photograph to preserve my memories, that is what is left of my youth.
And these days, well since March, this song comes to my mind:
https://genius.com/The-beatles-when-im-sixty-four-lyrics
Given that my car spends less time in the shop than I do, I wonder how spry I’ll be in 6 or more short years.
You reminded me of a favorite song albeit depressing:
Hello in there
We had an apartment in the city
Me and Loretta liked living there
Well, it’d been years since the kids had grown
A life of their own left us alone
John and Linda live in Omaha
And Joe is somewhere on the road
We lost Davy in the Korean war
And I still don’t know what for, don’t matter anymore
Ya’ know that old trees just grow stronger
And old rivers grow wilder ev’ry day
Old people just grow lonesome
Waiting for someone to say, “Hello in there, hello”
Me and Loretta, we don’t talk much more
She sits and stares through the back door screen
And all the news just repeats itself
Like some forgotten dream that we’ve both seen
Someday I’ll go and call up Rudy
We worked together at the factory
But what could I say if asks “What’s new?”
“Nothing, what’s with you? Nothing much to do”
So if you’re walking down the street sometime
And spot some hollow ancient eyes
Please don’t just pass ’em by and stare
As if you didn’t care, say, “Hello in there, hello”
Songwriters: John Prine
Hello in There lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc
I’m with you there John. Sometimes it’s like Joni Mitchell ‘going down down down the dark ladder’ I won’t look at photos of my younger self; preserve your memories they’re all that’s left you.