Advantages and disadvantages of being older

       For the record I am age 64 and a male.

            First the advantages.

                        1) Cloth diapers, diaper pins, and diaper pants, and cleaning them. I know what to do since I've done it, mostly because I had to.

                        2)  Using gas cooking without pilot lights, or even the newer electronic ignition (which of course must be maintained). We used matches to light the fire for cooking. Pilot lights used to be normal to me after they came in to use. People that use propane cooking grills today are probably familiar with electronic ignition, by the way.

                        3)  Saving energy was a concerted Family effort, like not disruptive, but certainly thought about, like even turning off lights when we didn't really need them, or putting on long johns in the cold season. Yep, in the 5th grade this made the 1880 house look like a dungeon, but it did save energy.

                        4)  Walking and even riding bikes and using bus public transportation, to include interstate travel. Yep, I've grown up on that, too. Now that I am older, much seems like good exercise to me, that is the walking and riding a bike stuff. I even delivered newspapers this way, to include using pulled shopping carts.

                        5) Rural electrification came in where I now live within the last 100 years, and I like the benefits, though not the expenses. As a Marine, I have lived without electricity, and it was not a fun experience for this spoiled American.

                        6)  I can remember when most houses had clothes lines for drying our clothes outside. Now that is a skill we can readily bring back, if need be. I suspect most houses don't even have clothes pins, these days.

                        7)  I appreciate being able to use toilet paper. Even splinter free toilet paper was not manufactured until the 1930's. And many places in the world don't have toilet paper, and still do just fine with their own customs. I even remember in Japan in the 1980's having to carry my own toilet paper as a sightseer.

                        8)  I remember living with my Grandmother circa 1951 who used an ice box for refrigeration in the city, and the ice man came twice a week with new blocks of ice. And she and my Grandfather were well off enough to even have this service. Now I think most every home has an electric refrigerator and freezer. But I also know there is a Plan B, like sharing food before it goes bad.

                        9) Telephone party lines are when we share one line, and if somebody talks a lot, then I can't even get on, even for a life and death emergency. So I appreciate things like having my own telephone line, and even 911 services these days. Mostly, though, it was the women on the line who just gabbed, and hogged up the line. Now I could have listened to them, but was too bored in the early elementary school part of my life.

Now the disadvantages.

            1) Being a male, I still don't recognize all the things females do in the feminine hygiene side of things. And I have been twice married, so I must be a slow learner in this area. And I love both of my Grandmothers, but don't wish what they put up with on my present female relatives.

            2)  At age 64, my ego exceeds my strength, which is declining. And I still exercise, mostly in walking around my land, but mother nature has an effect to. I even accept help with groceries, which at one time I would never do.

            3)  I actually think about death since I am on the downhill side of the usual life spans.

I suspect others can add to this discussion with their own experience about getting older.