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The Eclectic Pen - I wouldn't change a thing

By: IONE L. (zaneygraylady)   + 85 more  
Date Submitted: 6/11/2007
Last Updated: 6/12/2007
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs » Memoirs
Words: 456
Rating:

My kids say why don't you just dye your hair? You'd look ten years younger. I don't want to look ten years younger. I love my gray hair. I know it defines me, but this is what my gray hair says, this is a woman who has lived an interesting and full life. She may no longer be a beauty queen. Her beauty is in her history. If I were ten years younger I wouldn't have been able to sit in the second to the last row screaming and crying at the Beatles first American tour in Detroit. I wouldn't have been sitting on the floor in my gym class in junior high listening over the loudspeaker that President Kennedy had been shot. I wouldn't have worn daddy shirts, cutoffs and tennis shoes without socks as the unofficial uniform of the cool kids. I wouldn't have marched downtown for civil rights after Martin Luther King had been shot. I wouldn't have seen Bob Dylan in concert just when he went eletric. He did the first set alone and for the second set he came out with his band and the crowd booed. He looked out and said, "Come on guys" and started his set. When he was done everyone applauded their approval. I wouldn't have tried to be a beatnik in highschool before anyone heard of hippies. In college I wouldn't have marched against the Vietnam war. I wouldn't have lived in the crazy house we called "Park Place" where I met my husband. There was always music playing and people getting high. Guys and girls living together in a somewhat loose commune. I defined myself as a hippy. I wouldn't have hitch hiked with a girlfriend to Michigan State to see the Jefferson Airplane and the Lovin Spoonfull at an outside concert. I wouldn't have hitch hiked up north with my then boyfriend for the weekend just for fun. I wouldn't have seen Jerry Garcia entering Cobo Hall in Detroit on my first date with my husband. He waved to us and said hi as we were waiting for the concert. I wouldn't have gotten married in a white mini dress with platform shoes at my home to a hippy. I wouldn't have married a hippy and immediatley tried to reform him when I decided to "go straight" and hung on to a difficult marrige that produced four kids and four grandchildren so far. I wouldn't be going to China to meet my new daughter in law and grandaughter this August. I wouldn't be the poet I am because my writing comes out of my experience. I wouldn't change a thing including my gray hair because that is what makes me who I am.

The Eclectic Pen » All Stories by IONE L. (zaneygraylady)

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