70+ Year Olds Are Rock-n-Roll!

My 78 year old friend, Sammie, has a birthday coming up on 31 October.

She's never had a birthday party. Halloween was always given parties and decorating and candy. But she's never had her own fun day.

Her daughter flew in from Michigan (we're in Texas), risking Covid Delta to throw her mom a party. It was a surprise (mostly).

This is the same friend whose companion took his own life on the 4th of July. My little old lady friend has been through a lot.

Saturday was the day she had scheduled to have her rain gutters cleaned. She was up on her roof, helping the man she'd hired when her daughter, Gina, came outside to tell her she needed to come in to take a bath.

What in the world?

Sammie didn't have a clue why she would need a bath. But she came in and hopped in the shower, anyway.

When she got out of the shower, her entire house was decorated and Gina put a birthday sash around Sammies shoulders. She looked like Miss America!

Gina had arranged for food. Lots of food. Chicken tamales, tacos, and 2 pizzas.

I brought goat cheese and crackers. Every other guest brought food as well. There was enough food to feed a battalion (500-600 soldiers is a typical battalion).

Sammie friends and cousins were all there. The cousins who couldn't make the trip to Texas were there on FaceTime.

Not pictured above are me, the photographer, cousin Linda and her husband David.

We were the die hard part animals. Everyone else left.

We live in the bible belt of the United States, so there were quite a few denominations in that house. Baptist, Mormon, Catholic, Atheist.

I bet you can guess who the Atheist is.

David was in the Navy and they told interesting stories about that. I didn't know until they were leaving that David actually has dementia.

Cousin Debra was born in San Diego and told stories of traveling across country with friends. Stories of her boy friends ( she said they weren't dating, just smoking pot and having sex). She told a story of two men. I've of whom she was fooling around with physically, the other she had been on some platonic dates with. They had the same first name.

She had the opportunity to go to Hawaii, but didn't have a place to stay. So she called the man she thought was the one she'd been cooking around with and asked if he wanted company. Could be pick her up at the airport? Sure, the man agreed.

When she got to the airport, she couldn't find the man she thought she'd called, but the other guy came up to her. He took her bags and carried them to his car.

When they got to the car, Debra had a sneaky suspicion that something was amiss, but she wasn't sure. She asked, "What happened to the International Harvester? Did it finally give up the ghost?"

That's when the man told her he thought she had him confused with someone else and when she realized she'd called the wrong guy!

He was gracious and let her stay with him anyway.

One of the other younger women, either Gina or Lorrie, asked the question we were all dying to know.

"So, did you sleep with this guy?"

Debra said, "Well I said it was a vacation, didn't I?"

We all laughed.

I don't know how old Debra is, But in her late 60s at least.

Gina, Lorrie, and I were the babies of the party. We are only in our 50s.

Cousin Zachie, who is just 74, told stories of her and Sammie growing up together. And she told stories of in 1969 going to visit San Francisco and only (!) staying for 10 years.

Cousin Z did a LOT of partying. She described rooms with kilo bricks of marijuana stacked to the ceiling with just a narrow walk way in between.

Cousin Debra piped up, "I used to buy by the kilo." She didn't specify what she was buying, but it was in the early 80s for her so I suspect it was cocaine rather than pot.

There were tales of premarital sex and drugs and debauchery. Cousin Z Merry her life partner back then.

Even Cousin Linda and David had stories. They may at church camp. They hung out in the back of the bus where they went to go make out. It was 1964. The married in 1968.

We don't often think of older people leaving wild and crazy lives. But they do. And if we are lucky, they'll share their stories with us.

I had such a good time at this party. Especially after the Bloody Marys were mixed up.

I'm bound and determined to ask all of my older friends about their youth. Because, man oh man do they have stories!