Friday, April 8, 2016

Senior Discount

When Steve turned sixty, a milestone age which makes many of us who are younger than that squirm, he was no fun. The teasing and old age jokes did not bother him one bit. He shrugged off all references to creaky joints, ignored admonishments that he should stop climbing ladders (“You could fall and break a hip!”), and refused the offer to have dinner at 5 o’clock. “I think it’s the law once you turn sixty,” I told him. No reaction. When our daughter started calling him “Pops,” he found it amusing.  “Well, I feel like a Pops,” he reasoned.
He did not want a big birthday bash, despite my frequent pleadings. Instead, we rented a house on the Cape for the week, with immediate family wandering in and out, and he happily ate mussels and steamers with our kids and biked the fifty two miles to Provincetown and back with his sister-in-law and brother-in-law.
His real joy kicked in a couple of years later when he discovered the Senior Citizen discount.
“Seniors over 62 get a discount on Amtrak tickets,” he bellowed from the other room. “This is fantastic!”
“So, now you’re calling yourself a senior citizen?” I was horrified.
“You’re just jealous you’re not as old as me.”
“And did you know I can get discounts at Applebee’s and The Olive Garden?"
“Have fun with that.”
We recently took a 12-day road trip through the states of Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana to celebrate Steve’s next milestone birthday, occurring this summer. We mapped out a route to include stops along the “Blues Trail,” which included juke joints now run down and shuttered that were alive and hopping decades ago. We stopped by the birthplaces of musicians like Buddy Guy and B.B. King, and lots of others I had never heard of. Most of these spots were noted by markers on the side of southern, dusty back roads, and took some searching to find.
We also visited historical and musical museums that had admission fees. That’s when Senior Citizen Steve stepped in. We went to so many places in such a compressed period of time that the request for a discount was, to me, constant and loud.
“Do you have Senior discounts?” He asked the clerk at The Johnny Cash Museum.
“Yes, sir, 62 and older.
Steve beamed as he saved his two dollars.
It was the same at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, and Sun Studio and Graceland in Memphis and various sites throughout the Mississippi River Delta.
“One senior and one adult ticket, please.” I heard it over and over again.
On our last day in Memphis, we walked to the south side of town to visit The Civil Rights Museum, set in The Lorraine Motel, site of Martin Luther King’s assassination. As we crossed the parking lot, we stopped to gaze up at the balcony where Dr. King was shot. It was a somber and serious moment in what had otherwise been a joyful and exuberant road trip.
As we went through the front doors of the museum and approached the ticket counter, Steve nudged me and pointed to the Admission Prices posted on the wall.
Adults: $15.00
Senior Citizens (55 and older): $14.00
I gulped. “That’s me,” I whispered.
“Go ahead,” he smiled, a little too broadly.
I walked ahead of him up to the ticket counter.

“Two senior citizen tickets. And, please, please ask for my id.”

6 comments:

  1. very funny, i love stories about you two. this is very real and very entertaining, also informative, as something to look forward to. keep them coming!

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  2. I love it Shirl! Too funny! When is our next trip? I am ready!!

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  3. LOVE this! It's so you--*gracefully* stumbling into the land of no heels and senior discounts. You were just made for life. xo

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    1. Thanks, Scadutes! "Stumbling" is me all over.

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