The Metallic Years

Newlyweds Ted Parsons and Jean Reed (CASCADE 2013)

After nine decades of living, reminiscing can cover a lot of territory. It is almost unbelievable how our civilization has changed in the last century compared to the centuries that preceded the one we live in. From trudging on roads with three or four feet of snow plus drifts on foot to get to a one-room schoolhouse where if the teacher was tardy the ink in the inkwell was frozen to zipping along on roads cleared of snow in a cozy school bus to a classroom toasty and without inkwells.

I received a jewel from my cousin entitled On the Journey: A Collection of Poems and Stories written by her father. Bertil, Nancy's father, recalled in his memoirs a conversation with his physician in his latter years: Like me, you have reached the metallic years with silver in your hair, gold in the teeth, steel in the bones, no iron in the blood but with lead in the seat.

There were also references to my grandfather who died before I was born. I also never met my grandparents on my birth mother's side nor my stepmother's mother. My several summers even without the winters as a child on the homestead helped me understand some of those earlier years and Bertil Swanson's memories. And now an acquaintance with those metallic years.

I have as a person as well as a clergyman struggled with some of the ages recorded in Holy Scripture such as Adam and Methuselah who lived for centuries if taken literally. If taken figuratively I would be even more bewildered when now with all our medical skills, medicines and healthy provisions only a handful reach the early hundred years. But then, I won't be around one hundred years from now to report on statistics then.

Bertil married my father's sister and told of his earlier years living with his parents and six siblings on a one room house (15' x 17') on 40 acres with considerable swamp land included from 1914-1927. The older children slept in the loft and often awakened covered with snow. Later a lean to kitchen (15' x 10') was added. In 1927 they rented a larger home and built their own in 1932 which still remains for another generation.

Ah yes, our reminiscing can at times diminish some of our senior complaining, can it not?