Kris Kristofferson, sang a ballad back in 1986 called ‘This Old Road.” It was about growing old and having another birthday like I did a few weeks ago.
On your birthday, do you ever take a glimpse of your life’s road from the rear-view mirror of your mind?
I often play this song on my birthday as I look at that picture that accompanies my column ~ the young Dargan Boy.
Kris begins his song:
“Look at that old photograph; is it really you, smiling like a baby full of dreams?”
And I begin to think some of that long road I have travelled.
July 16, 1948 ~ I was born on a hot summer day and decided to live with my grandparents Reno and Gen in Dargan, Maryland; Israel became a country that same year.
Next verse tells of some upcoming chapters:
“Smiling ain’t so easy now; some are coming true; nothing is simple as it seems.’“
June 1959 ~ Grandpa Reno dies; Pee Wee, my cousin and I were raised then by Grandma Gen; leaving Dargan two-room school soon.
June 1966 ~ Graduated from Boonsboro High, leaving for Uncle Sam’s Army. “Go Warriors” had a new meaning.
August 1967 ~ headed for Vietnam; dumb politicians sent over 58,000 troops to their death for nothing back then. (I still don’t like dumb politicians much these days.)
December 1968 ~ married a brown-eyed girl, Sheila; she was the love of my life, and we traveled down this path together until July 29, 2023 at 11 o’clock when I tearfully whispered to her “see you later.”
August 1969 ~ a beautiful daughter, Amy, was gifted to us and lives next door today. She walked her mother home.
Christmas Eve 1969 ~ went to a prison as a young correctional officer; would become a prison warden later, first warden from Dargan, I’m thinking; go figure!
August 1972 ~ knocked over a telephone pole on my way to work; slowed me down a bit to recover; damn near died and visited death for maybe the third time.
Kristofferson continues his ballad:
“But I guess you count your blessings with the problems that you’re dealing with today, like the changing of the seasons.“
Many seasons have come and gone, and I am still counting birthdays this month; 78 of them have come to visit me and gone.
A war, a career in prison with a few riots, and many, many travels and places around the globe have kept me busy. So many encounters with many friends and all types of people from different walks; .
“Ain’t you come a long way down this old road,” the songster continues to sing to me as I continue to sip from the chalice before me on my desk.
This night is growing old too like me.
A 34-year-old artificial hip; two artificial knees; quadruple heart bypass; hernia repair and good-bye to my gallbladder have all found me still standing.
Kris daydreams too; ‘”Looking at a looking glass, running out of time, on a face you used to know.“
As the years flew by and I look in that looking glass every morning, I realize that picture of my youth has changed a bit, and those particles of sand are drifting faster through that hour glass, as the next verse comes:
“Traces of the future lost in between the lines, one more rainbow for the road.“
“Thinking of the faces in the window that you passed along the way; or the last thing you believed in.“
And I begin to realize more fully that life comes and goes a little more with each day and season gifted.
I strive to make each remaining day down this old road the best I can.
So many memories, so many thoughts too at night to keep one company.
“Say you tried to chase the sundown and you let it slip away, and the holy night is falling.“
“Ain’t you come a long way; ain’t you come a long way down, this old road?“
Look at that old photograph….
Is it really you?
