Seems Like Only Yesterday

                                  Seems Like Only Yesterday

     I picked up the newspaper this morning and read a column by a favorite writer, Darrell Huckaby.   He talks about  another popular writer, Lewis Grizzard, who passed away twenty years ago.  Twenty years ago was 1994.   I was forty seven, a little less grey headed, a lot thinner, and the kids were still in high school - could it really be twenty years ago ? - seems like only yesterday.
     I look at myself in the mirror and there is an old man starring back at me.  He has grey hair, a big belly, drooping eyebrows (what's left of them), and age spots.  I got more hair in my ears than most guys have on their head and have to trim my nose hairs more often than I get a haircut.  I don't know when I turned into this old person because it was only yesterday that I was young, lean and tall with dark wavy hair and, if I do say so myself, I was damn good looking.  Could it be that life really does pass in the blink of an eye, does time really fly - snap your fingers today and tomorrow is yesterday.
     As I write my stories the memories are as vivid as if they happened yesterday even the ones that have to be pried from the darkest corners of the deepest caverns of my brain retain the freshness of yesterday. The sights, smells and sounds I encounter today can often recreate things from long ago, and even though I continue walking around in the present, my mind can dredge up some long forgotten memory without me missing a step.
     I see the little four year old boy next door as he learns to ride his first two wheel bike and I remember my first bike and the skinned toes, knees and elbows that went with the experience.  The other day I was burning dead leaves and all of a sudden I was back on the farm playing with matches when I set Grandpa Riggan's fields on fire.  Inhaling the smoke,  I could see the flames and columns of smoke rise above Grandpa's head as he and Granny beat back the flames with wet feed sacks.  I know it wasn't just yesterday but my minds eye and my senses tell me otherwise.
     Seems like only yesterday that I struck out on my own not knowing where I was going or how I would get there.  Back then there were fewer yesterdays and many more tomorrows.
     It was just yesterday that I held Danny in my arms his head fit snugly in my palm and his feet barely reached my elbow.  I saw his first smiles and heard his first words, I watched him learn to walk.   Now I am doing the same thing with his daughter and thinking life doesn't get any better than this.  Clay has a picture of himself, Danny, his Aunt Vickie and Uncle Larry on a fishing trip about twenty five years ago. Vickie is holding him tight as he grins from ear to ear while holding his first fish.  In the grand scheme of things it wasn't that long ago but it is a yesterday I treasure.  I hope to have my picture taken with MJ when she catches her first fish if not maybe Aunt Vickie can fill in for me (she does have a nicer smile).
     It was only yesterday when I met Linda.  She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.  Soon Linda and I will mark our forty seventh anniversary.  The ravages of time have taken their toll on both of us but she feels like an eighteen year old girl when I hold her in my arms.  Her skin is still soft to the touch and her voice as sweet as ever to my ears.  Her blue eyes are still bright and shinny in the sun light.  She still lets me hold her hand as we walk beside each other.  She is still my girl and just as beautiful.  Some yesterdays have no tomorrows, only now's and forever's.
     The problem is that there are a lot of yesterdays and at this stage of life the tomorrows too quickly become more yesterdays and there aren't that many more tomorrows.  By the time I finish this piece now will be tomorrow then yesterday.  This could be an episode of the 1960's "Twilight Zone".