BY KYLE LOVERN

They say that as we advance with age, it is our “golden years.” I think maybe it should be like our “rusty” years.

When I get up in the morning, and pretty much all day, my joints are creaking and hurting. I told my wife Vicki that I sounded like a bowl of Rice Krispies. I “snap, crackle and pop.”

There is no doubt if you have a “trick knee” you can tell when it’s going to rain. This isn’t just a myth.

Most of the time I feel like the Tin Man from the “Wizard of Oz.” I could use some oil on my knees, elbows and other joints to get me going.

Thank goodness for our dog Petey who makes me walk every morning so I still get some necessary exercise. As you may have read in a recent article, he takes me for a long walk every morning and a few shorter ones throughout the day. I’m sure my old body still needs that exercise. But some mornings it is tough.

Getting older makes you wiser, but it sure is a rough road getting to that point. I always liked this quote from a classic actor and comedian. “You know you’re getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there,” George Burns.

My favorite writer Mark Twain had this quote on getting older. “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

It is best to stay active, but it is definitely more difficult to do so.

I recall my late father Sam Lovern telling me if he had one wish it wouldn’t be for a million dollars, but it would be for good health. Or course, when I was younger, I didn’t necessarily understand that. But now that I’m up there in age, I can see that he was 100 percent correct.

Besides living with all of the “Itis” brothers who visit me on a daily basis, Art, Burt and Tennis (arthritis, bursitis and tendinitis) – it seems as though my seasonal allergies are now more aggravating. I thought I would grow out of these, but they seem to have gotten worse. The sinus headaches, scratchy throat and post nasal drip are annoying. I hate to see the ragweed and other weeds blooming because I know what is in store for the next few weeks.

I’m sure many of you who are also up there in age have experienced this. You get up off the couch, leave the living room to go into the kitchen to get something, but for some reason you get distracted. Maybe it’s the football game you’re watching or you stop to pet the dog. But you forget what it was you wanted when you get to the other room.

Here is another good quote in regards to something like that happening. “You don’t stop laughing when you grow old; you grow old when you stop laughing,” George Bernard Shaw.

How about going to the grocery store, but the list you made of things you needed is still lying on the kitchen table back at the house?

Or you see someone at the store and think, “Wow, he really looks old these days.” And you realize you graduated with that person.

Try not to let aging bring you down. You may not be able to get back up – literally.

At the end of the day, you might not love the idea of growing old. But when you compare it to your only alternative, it doesn’t really sound that bad at all.

Like one elderly neighbor I had while growing up in Nolan, Acy Hensley, who I admired because even during his old age he raised a big garden every summer, still went hunting and did a lot of things that many don’t do at a younger age. I would ask him how he was feeling, and he would say, “Kicking, but not high.” I always liked that saying. I understood what he meant even at my younger age. He was saying, “I’m still doing things, maybe not as good as I used to,” but he was still doing what he enjoyed.

And, of course, getting old beats the option. As another saying goes, “I’m 6 feet above – instead of 6 feet under.”

Growing old is actually a great thing despite what some other people might say. It’s a testament to the kind of person that you have become. It’s proof that you were able to live a fulfilling life. With that, I’ll leave you with another quote from George Burns, who lived a little past 100 years old.

“By the time you’re 80 years old, you’ve learned everything. You only have to remember it.”

(Kyle Lovern is a longtime journalist in the Tug Valley. He is now a retired freelance writer and columnist.)