More from: "Out of the Mouth of Seniors:"
Back a few years I sent a little email out about : "Things that made me smile today."
Well, tonight an old friend sent it back to me and said:
"Kevin do you remember sending this to me?"
Nope.
So I read it , and it made me smile. I hope some of it makes you smile too.


Things that made me smile today.

I got up and made Kathy her lunch, and her coffee: Black with a touch of chocolate milk. I do this every morning at around 5:15 AM, when her alarm goes off. I mix her Ovaltine - which isn’t really Ovaltine, but chocolate milk with a tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil in it. When she calls it Ovaltine, it makes me smile. For two reasons:
One, I remember the scene from “A Christmas Story” when Ralphie gets his “secret decoder ring”. That always makes me smile as he struggles to decode the secret message: DRINK YOUR OVALTINE.
Two, my Mother used to make us Ovaltine, until Nestle's came out with Nestle’s Quick… the Rabbit won our hearts. Nestle’s Quick is more milk chocolate tasting (has way more sugar) and makes a wonderful sweet cup of hot chocolate. Marshmallows float invitingly in the milky chocolate waves…daring you to ignore them. Nestle’s Quick has no nutritional value, but its value to a cold shivering child in the fifties is …as they say- priceless.

I shaved this morning. I only do that twice a week nowadays. I looked in the mirror and saw a grizzled old man who needed a shave. That made me smile. Inside I don’t feel like an old man, I feel like Kevin. The mirror showed me an old man…and that made me smile. I even greeted him: “Good morning Old Man, have a nice day.”
One of my friends sent me a cute little story that his daughter told him. On her Social Media she saw a post that said:
“I hate it when WallMart doesn’t have what I need. And I have to drive all the way home, change out of my pajamas, take a shower, and get dressed to go to Target.”
That made me smile. And everyone I have repeated it to reacted the same way with a laugh and these words: “So true!”
And that made me smile too.
My daughter sent me a picture. It was of a huge pink sign in front of a house on Halloween that read:
"No Candy this year. Kid with Cancer. See me Next year."
Under the sign was a pile of candy in the grass. Kids came up to that house, read the sign, and left some of their own candy behind for the little kid who was sick. Nobody told them to. Nobody was watching them. They just were kind. And that made me smile.
I got my Covid Booster Shot at the Drug Store. A young Nurse gave it to me. I told her she had wonderful technique and that if she was in the Army, they would have given her a Medal. She asked me why? I said the Army gives out medals for folks who face danger every day, and still do their job. She is exposed to high risk every day, and even danger from angry misinformed patients, but she shows up and does her job. She told me she never thought of it that way.
She thanked me. We fist bumped. And that made me smile.
On the way out I said: “I am among the immortals now.”
Deadpan, she replied: “Wear a mask indoors, around crowds, and maintain Social Distancing…all the Immortals are doing it now.”
And that made me smile too.
I had a severe ear infection that took weeks to cure. I lost most of my hearing for a bit. My grandkids spent the night, and adjusted to having to repeat things several times, and look directly at me when speaking to me. My Kathy told them both that Pop Pop is having a hard time hearing. My grandson said:
“Pop Pop can’t hear, but it hasn’t slowed down his talking.”
And that made me smile.
I was listening to the Radio (Yes, I still do that, and that should make you smile!) and a song came on that was played in my House on a Reel to Reel Tape Recorder that my brother brought home from the Navy. The song was “It’s a Summer Place”, and comes in an instrumental version, and the Letterman’s made a version with singing…both are wonderful. Percy Sledge Orchestra and the Letterman.
That alone made me smile. But the smile grew. Why?
Because it brought back so many warm and happy memories. My Mom loved that song too. She didn’t like fiddling with the complicated changing of reels and dials, and knobs on the huge reel to reel recorder. I just smiled thinking my Mom wasn’t comfortable with new fangled technology, she wanted an album to put on the record player. If she only knew what a Playlist was…well she did, they were called LP’S…
LOL
My Mom would close her eyes and gently tap out the chords on the table (she played piano and organ) - her face would relax, the tension of taking care of ten kids would leak away. A young girl would peek out for a brief moment. And that made me smile.
The song also instantly transports me back to my Old High School Sweetheart, and her brother- my Best Friend. I can’t share most of those memories except to say they are warm, comforting, sweet memories. All of them make me smile.
When I first told my Best Friend to sit down and listen to the song with his Sister and I, he didn’t want to. His favorite music was loud Rock and Roll, Jimmy Hendricks was his favorite Guitar Player…so to listen to a slow instrumental song, and then have to listen to the Letterman’s lyrical version…well, let’s just say if I hadn’t been his Best Friend, and he didn’t want to hurt his sister’s feeling, no way on God’s Green Earth would he have sat down and listened with us.
Turns out, he loved it. So much so we played it six times in a row. Later that week, he bought the record. And played it for his Sweetheart.
The song became part of his chain of memories too. And that made me smile.
Another thing that made me smile, came on my instagram post (where I usually just look at pictures of the Kids and Grandkids) it was a picture of a sign on one of those small road side trailers you see with the Neon Arrows. It read:
“I just sold my homing pigeon on Ebay for the 22nd time.”
And that made me smile.
Now I am going to make myself some tea, sit on the porch and look at the trees across the street. It is cool enough today that I shall have to wear socks and shoes instead of flip flops…
And that made me smile.
So that was a summer or two ago...but my friend thought enough of it to send it back to me...and well...
That made me smile.