"STOP ME IF I'VE TOLD YOU THIS BEFORE"

In dealing with older people, one has to hear the same stories over and over! I don't want to turn out that way--please don't let me become a boring old coot (is "old" redundant in that usage?); nowadays, I make myself preface anecdotes with, "Stop me if I've told you this before."

My mother was defiantly NOT that way! My mother said that she hated to be around old people because all they talked about were their ailments! She was 80 at the time! Although my mother would tell us stories about "back then", it was usually at our urging.

My mother was always "au courant", keeping up on current events and pop culture. Every day she would tell me about the topic on "Oprah" and other newsworthy events.

My mother always had "crushes" on movie stars, but when they got old, she would just toss them aside for a new "hunk". We teased her about her crush on Jack Lord as "Stoney Burke" (we razzed her by saying "Stoney Puke') but when "Hawaii Five-O" came along, Jack Lord was "too old" for her interest!

Once, when we were going to a Dylan concert, Mother said, "Well, his lyrics are good, but I can't stand that a-tonal flat voice!" She should have been a critic!

Mother loved Sinatra and Perry Como but those records were put aside for newer artists. I said, "Mother, you are so disloyal!" She answered, "Oh, I still like them, but I like new stuff too." My niece came to live with us and she and my mother spent a great deal of time together and my niece would play her favorite music in the car--the Judds, Reba, Shania--and she made cassettes for mother. Mother started listening to country and western music. She became a fan of Reba McEntire. I gasped, "Reba McEntire?"

Her favorite song became "The Rose" by Bette Midler. We played it at her funeral.