Saturday, March 24, 2012

ELDERLY COUPLE

"A lovely elderly couple in Bali"

I overheard Rico, our pot-bellied apartment manager, refer to us as
"the elderly couple upstairs."
What?!
How dare he?!
Phil may be elderly, but not me!!!!
I'm about to tell Rico, "Hey, I'll race you around the block.  
We'll see who is the elderly then."

Unfortunately it's happened before.
The first time someone called us that was in Bali where we ran a guest house.
A young woman from Singapore wrote in her travel blog that she stayed with
"a lovely elderly couple."
Ouch ouch ouch!

One more insult and I'll go back to painting my hair red and yellow!


Or maybe I should start wearing a wig
Anything to escape being called elderly!

2 comments:

  1. Ouch, ouch, ouch indeed.

    To be solely identified as such when there is SO much else that makes you guys who you are other than your ages...Puleeze! Absolutely NOT fair. I know people old at 38. It may be their life history, or the way
    they were raised, but it's really who they are inside; it's them. Closed
    off, shut down & not open to change from that moment on 'til the date of their dying. Sound like Phil & Elsha? Well, duh, hardly!

    I still have my purple stripe in my hair. Why? Because I'm eccentric. Of course, that's a given. But also because I hate being classified as ANYTHING. (Okay, I'll take poet & artist, except for having to live up to the weight of those words!) And I'm rather fond of being a WOMAN, though not necessarily a human. We aren't at our best these days. Mammal will do.

    As to other classifications, I'd throw away passport & papers as I'd honestly prefer to be a citizen of the universe above anything more limiting. But what do I find myself doing? Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork for the Canadian gov, US federal gov, the state gov &
    even the city from time to time. Truly the bane of my existence.
    And nobody demands more narrow minded categorizing than they
    all do. Zero humor about it, too. How many times I am told my papers will be tossed if I enter 'human' as race instead of trying to define
    myself more restrictively as they demand.

    Do we have that right about you two even? I'm identified as an 'alien',
    so just checking to be sure you aren't from outer or inner space, too.
    After that, dump the 'elderly' nonsense - mature, wise, choose whatever makes you comfortable. I haven't found the right descriptive yet myself,
    but one thing's for sure - elderly ain't it for me either!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, at least you are not "old and fat" like me. Lol.

    ReplyDelete