"still it's a real good bet...

the best is yet to come."
-Frank Sinatra

Barbara Stewart, the lady that owns Barbara Stewart Interiors on the Downtown Square, and I had a talk one day. I went in to get a wedding gift and came out with two gifts: the tangible one in my hand and one that could not be returned, the gift of wisdom.
As always, she was perched on a chair looking prim and proper. I said my standard hello, knowing her but wondering if she remembered me because she has so many customers. This visit stands out in my mind because of these three words that provided the opening to one of my favorite conversations I've ever had:
"Close your eyes!" said Mrs. Stewart.
I was just a bit caught off guard.
"What?" I blurted out.
"Close your eyes!" she repeated.
So I did just as she instructed and closed my eyes.
"Open them!" Mrs. Stewart said.
So I opened them.
And I wish I had a picture so you could see what I saw.
She was wearing Martini-shaped glasses on her eyes.
"Whereeeee did you get those? I want a pair!" I squeled.
"My friends gave these to me at my birthday party last night, aren't they fun?!" Mrs. Stewart replied, with an hint of satisfaction in her voice that she'd gotten the reaction she'd anticipated.

And this was when I decided that age is a state of mind.

I hoped, as I left the little shop of sophistication that day, that when I'm in my 80s I too will be wearing martini-shaped sunglasses and ordering 20-something year old girls to close their eyes ....so I can remind them that I'm just as (or even more) youthful as they are.

"I should have switched from Scotch to martinis." -Humphrey Bogart, American actor (1899-1957)