This morning my mom took me out for our usual morning walk around 7 AM. Labor Day? Who cares. I need my walk.
On our way out she stopped to talk with a new neighbor and her boyfriend. They were enjoying a smoke break. (Our building is dog-friendly, no-smoking. Just the way I like it.) My mom was telling them she works at home.
“But wouldn’t you rather just retire and do nothing?”
Good grief. My mom was shaken up. “I need to start wearing more makeup,” she said, as we headed around the corner. “It’s SO depressing to have a young body and more or less young mind and get treated like an old lady…”
My mom thinks she has an old mind because she doesn’t know any of the new music. She hates it. She has spent a lifetime listening to classical country and classical concert music. Period. She tries to like jazz. She just discovered Queen song “We Will Rock You” at the WNBA game. People kept a straight face when she asked, “Where did that come from? Oh, the 70s? I was still on George Jones back then…”
True, my mom wore her yucky old sweats because it seemed chilly. I sense a new wardrobe and hairstyle may be coming. My mom needs to remember that to a young person, everybody looks old. She claims you can get senior passes at movies starting in your 40s because the teenagers at the box office can’t tell 40 from 60.
Meanwhile, my mom plans to spend the whole day in hiding. Me too…unless we get a dog park break. Nobody at the dog park is into fashion. I don’t even wear my new bandanna.