The Elderly and The Young
Last week the 104 year old lady next door to me died. She was survived by many grand and great-great grandchildren. She left property in 3 states and a lot of history behind her. Some of the descendants are eager to sell the property. Some of them want to record the history of a woman with such a long life it held together a family.
Its amazing that one of the first things we forget to teach our children is their history. I don't mean the immediate history of grandparents and parents, but the history of what makes a family and where it came from. Perhaps that comes from the fact that in the United States we look so much to the future that we overlook the past. Our young people forget their elders every chance they get unless they are giving them gifts and money.
I remember my objection to visiting old folks homes back in the 60's when I was a kid was the smell of age and medicine. The elderly were once again babies and had to be taken care of. People forgot to nurture them, to harvest their memories for the days when they would be long gone. I was forced to put on my Sunday best and stand and listen to an old lady talk about her shoes. I turned her off immediately. But by the time I got home, my mother and father were laughing about the story she had told. Somewhere after I had tuned out the story about someone stealing her houseshoes last night, she started talking about the red shoes she had worn to a party where she met a very man-a movie star of her day. The story gave the shoes a life of their own and related a time in history that she could share because she was witness to it. It was out of respect that I stood there with a blank smile on my face. The next time we visited I listened as her mind wandered then got on the path to a story- everything she said was something I didn't know and could take back and share with my playmates. When I got older I shared the stories with classmates, my husband and then my children. It was history pure and simple.
We say the young are selfish, that this is becoming a me generation. I think all generations start off that way and appear so to the adults that have to sit back and watch history repeat itself. I certainly would have enjoyed spending most of my time playing instead of visiting my grandmother's best friend. But I learned then that young people can give back to their community in more ways than one if they just listen to the elderly.
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