My parents are cool!--OR--One's never too old

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This may be mundane and pointless to someone else, but I think my parents rock!

This morning, at 5:00AM, they took off on a motorcycle trip, from Kansas to the northwest USA. Mom sits behind Dad, leather jackets, helmets, and all. What’s so odd about this, you might ask? Well…

Dad is almost 75 and Mom is 71. People tell them “You’re too old for that now!” and they reply “Watch us!” Back in the 70’s and 80’s they took a number of such trips, but hadn’t done it in quite a while. They had toured Europe several times(in a car), and flew to Australia and drove around there.

They’ve met lots of people they wouldn’t have if they’d been riding in a car. Like the guy they will see this trip in Washington state. They met Bill back in the early 80’s, after their one and only accident. He lived in the same little town in Washington where the hospital was, and a volunteer there got him and Dad together, as Bill worked on motorcycles a lot. Bill was in his mid-sixties then, a crop duster. Before that he’d raced motorcycles and had quite a collection. And before that he’d been a bomber pilot in WWII, shot down, spent time as a POW, and so forth. Talk about great stories!

Or there was the time they were driving on pas a place where some New-Age guru was holding a big get together. Mom says they got the fisheye from more than one cop and trooper, as they drove past, because, at their “age” they looked “wierd” too!

The folks always have one “respectable” outfit packed away, as they always go to church on Sunday, even on vacation. Apparently it’s a lot of fun to roar up, especially when they slide into one of the church “visitor” parking slots!

I hope my folks have the best time ever! Anyone else have folks as cool as mine?

2

well, mine let me smoke weed n stuff like that. hell, they let me go off to amsterdam for a week, no problems or worries at all.

i guess that’s pretty cool…

yours do sound super-cool tho :slight_smile:

3

You are so damned lucky! :cool:

4

My parents like bikes too, though they don’t have much money for insurance etc so have satisfied themselves with the biggest possible mopeds. They go all over England together, my Dad all over Europe. They are in their late 60’s. Their internet name?

Hellsaged.

5

More lucky people! I think it would be wonderful to bike or moped or cycle around England & parts of Europe! :cool:

6

I’m going to tell my parents about that one!:stuck_out_tongue:

7

Great story, Baker! My mom is 73, but no way can I imagine her on a motorcycle! Your parents are cool. But I’m not surprised. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree . . . and you are one groovy apple yourself. :smiley:

8

When my papaw died 20+ years ago, my dad and my uncles tried to get my mamaw to take some trips. They wanted to see the country as she had never travelled much. Well, it turns out she doesn’t like to fly. Even a little bit. So she took bus trips a few tiems a years with a friend or by herslef even. I think for her it was a BIG step.

Perhaps not quite as exciting as a motorcycle adventure, but I know she felt like Amelia Earhart or something.

9

My mother, at the age of 53, decided she wanted to volunteer somewhere. So, out of the blue, she started working at an AIDS safe-house. Most of the people she works with are former drug users, homosexuals, or both. Many have been to prison. This is even more astounding given that my mother has lived in small town New England for her entire life, teaches 1st or 2nd grade, and considers going “into town” to be a big adventure. She suddenly became friends with these people, taught a convicted felon how to read, has had them over to the house on occasion, and has changed churches twice now in an effort to find a place that agrees with her new-found respect for gays (she was brought up in a strict Roman-Catholic Irish family). She started off going once a week, and now is involved with fundraising and management. She treats her new friends like family.

Also, she has gotten certified as a sex education/AIDS/STD teacher, and spends what’s left of her free time going to meetings with troubled youths to talk about safe sex, and the various methods that can be used. This from a woman who never spoke about sex (EVER) before, now she’s teaching kids about it.

I am astoundingly proud of her, and my father, who has gone from making jokes about “the gays” to welcoming them into his home. I could go on for hours, but I think you get the idea.

10

lightingtool, that’s great!

11

What JuanitaTech said!

12

Yep, your parents are tres cool. They’ll stay young for as long as they have life. I LIKE it!!!

My parents were cool too. Until mom got cancer, they were bicycling all over and still making love like (tranquil) rabbits. I imagine it comforts my dad, now that mom is gone, that they loved each other that much, and LIVED that much, right until the end.

And dad, at almost 85, is still working in his shop. His current project is squirrel feeders for us and various other people. He’ll be young until he passes, just like mom was. I am lucky, as are you.

13

lightingtool?

Your mom and dad give me hope for the world.