When Pigs Fly

I am sitting here at my kitchen table today,looking out my window at the back yard.
I can see plainly that old man winter has definitely arrived.The wind is pushing the clouds around the sky like the proverbial school yard bully and the trees are all leafless and bare while the grass is brown and brittle,even old Buck,my dog,is all curled up in a knot up against the side of the barn,disdaining the rather dubious comfort of his own dog house,and for some reason my mind has drifted to the subject of growing old in the U.S.A.
growing old in the U.S.A. is not like growing old in China or Latin America,i believe those cultures respect thier elders,somthing that i feel like is absent in our own modern day United States of American culture.Now i do not think of myself as one of those pessimistic old people that see no good in anything,there is still a lot of good things in modern day American culture,but the good in America is rapidly disapearing to be replaced with...what? not caring? or too busy making a living?maybe you can tell me what the problem is,i only know that it is changing,and not for the better.
Here in America,old people,and i mean people 55 and older,are mostly relegated to the unwanted status of 3rd or even 4th class citizens,they are held up to redicule and called "OLD GEEZER" what ever that means,And that is one of the KINDER phrases used,they are ignored,used and abused on almost every level of our society by people who seem to think that they will never attain the status of being "OLD" talk about culture shock?Old people are somtimes placed in what i laughingly refer to as a "NURSING HOME"have you ever visited one of those places?They are often referred to as RETIRMENT HOMES,in my opinnion they should have a sign over thier door reading "ABANDON HOPE,ALL YE WHO ENTER" these places are nothing more than warehouses of the aged,of the abandoned and forgotten,it is the smell that gets to you first,the smell of sour urine and old feces,it hits you right in the face as you enter the door,and speaking of faces,there are not a lot of smiles on those faces of the inmates of these places either,and what is called "RECREATIONAL THERAPHY is mostly being tied or strapped to a chair and rolled out into a hallway to sit for hours on end,and that is where the smell of urine and feces originates,they just forget about you and if ya gotta go,ya gotta go.
Now i cant sit here and truthfuly say that all nursing homes are bad,maybe there are some really good ones out there some where,maybe i just aint seen or visited one yet,and maybe there really are real nurses in them and maybe there are really ones that are home like,yup,and maybe pigs really do fly after all.

Story ID:	3323
Written by:	Bobby O'neill Mitchum (bio, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Musings, Essays and Such
Location:	Phenix City Alabama U.S.A.
Year:	2007
Person:	SELF