I’m not given to complaining, except when I’m awake. That’s according to wife Martha, The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage.
I also don’t think of myself as old, just older. Seeing my doctors is second only to seeing Martha.
All the nurses in the various medical places I go know me by my first name. I don’t know if that’s good or if it’s bad. I’m going to lean in the direction of good. After all, at my age I’m leaning in some direction.
Martha and I recently ate lunch together. When the waitress came to take our order, she asked how we were, and I responded, “Well, for an old geezer, we were doing fine.”
She smiled at me and said, “Does that mean you both are senior citizens?”
I usually take offense at that classification, but under the circumstances I nodded my head and said, “Yes, we’re senior citizens but I prefer old geezers.”
Looking at me, the waitress smiled and said, “You’re in luck. We have a senior citizen discount today on everything.”
I looked up at her and said, “Yes. We’re both senior citizens.”
“In that case, you can get a 20 percent discount on everything you order today.”
She took our coffee order and then went to get it for us. As she was gone, Martha said, “Are we old geezers or senior citizens?”
I smiled and said, “Today we are senior citizens and tomorrow will go back to being old geezers.”
“I guess it’s only about the money for you,” she replied with a smile.
After thinking for a moment, I finally responded, “I’ve never heard of an old geezer discount. Have you?”
She shook her head and said, “I’ll let you be a senior citizen today and we’ll see what tomorrow might bring.”
That next week, whenever we went to a restaurant and, the waitress would say, “How are you doing today?” I always responded by saying, “Do you have any senior citizen discounts today?”
If they said “no,” I’d always respond by saying, “I’m just an old geezer today.”
If they said “yes,” I’d say, “I’m a senior citizen today.”
At one restaurant, the waiter came up and greeted me. I was having a rather crazy day, to put it mildly, so I told him, “I’m just an old geezer today.”
“Well,” said the waiter, “this is my last day at this restaurant and so I’m going to give you an old geezer discount. You sorta remind me of my grandfather.”
I was so sorry Martha wasn’t with me. We could’ve enjoyed a two-way ticket for the old geezer discount. She would’ve been happy, I think. If I keep from calling her an old geezer, my day is happy.
In thinking about this, I remembered a verse in the Bible that addresses old age.
“They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.”
— Psalm 92: 14 God still has work for me, even as an old geezer. Finding that work is the daily joy of my life. This isn’t based on what I used to do, but what God has for me today.
Dr. Snyder is a former pastor who lives with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, wife Martha, in Ocala, Fla. His email is [email protected]
