Three Great Grandchildren—in town from South Carolina— took turns pushing my wheelchair through the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in downtown Dallas. Dinosaur collection was magnificent, but I spent most of my time looking at the oil and gas videos. Illustrations explained oil and gas exploration better than my 30-minute television Oil Country show in the 1950s. Sign said Tom Hunt provided the lessons. Hunt Oil’s contribution was crude oil and natural gas royalties
Category: Dick Elam
AI
Every other columnist I read these days strains over the addition of AI–computers writing their words. Before ‘artificial intelligence,’ writers got an idea then jumped out of bed and went to their keypad. For example, 2:43 AM for this ideation. Or the writer made an entry on the note pad near his bed, or sent herself a notation to read come morning. And even centuries before. The French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal in his later
Soliloquy
At my old folk’s boarding house lately I carry on a bunch of conversations with myself. A “soliloquy.” A fancy playwright word that describes talking aloud to yourself. Think Hamlet and Lady McBeth. Of course, those two usually command an audience. Covid demands a soliloquy. Two weeks of quarantine. Dining room closed. Meals delivered to your apartment in styrofoam containers. And worse news, another old-timer in our home passed away. My soliloquay: “Thanks, Lord, for giving
The Hole Tooth
By the time you move into the Old Folks Boarding House, you have lost that first tooth you cut and a bunch more. Maybe that’s why several years ago my dentist located a block away from my senior lodging. The better to make and fit dentures. I get a new one this Tuesday. Daughter said her daughter told her she wasn’t the first to throw dentures into the trash. If you cover the false teeth,
Got Documents
They found my college grade transcript in my collection of documents. As they suspected, their mother’s university grades were A-level. Dad’s grades were just passing. Last year when I moved into the old folk’s boarding house, my three daughters brought me many pieces of paper, envelopes, folders, cards from my condo, letters from boxes in son’s warehouse. Their baby brother, the last-of-my-litter, had a more manly approach: “get these xxx boxes out of my warehouse.” Not
Miss Mae James
Expect you remember your first-grade teacher. Back then we still had movable desks, a tabletop that opened for books and supplies, plus an inkwell, top right. Hamlin Texas Grammar School made use of what they had. Some of my classmates skipped days when they helped pick cotton. Because I was born in October, I had to wait until September to start first grade. I was the largest boy in Miss Mae James’ first grade. Age
Mickey and Me
Mickey Mouse and I share the same birth year. In 1928, cartoonist Walt Disney gave the movie world a mouse at the wheel of a steamboat. Same year Lena and Red (aka Albert Richard Elam) gave birth to ‘Junior’ in Pecos, Texas. Mickey and I have been animated ever since 1928. Last month, I gave myself a Mickey Mouse wristwatch. Sometimes, I have trouble determining which is the ‘big hand’ and which is the ‘little
Memory Bane
We old folks worry about our memory. That’s why I paid attention to Wall Street Journal story about zapping the brain with weak electrical currents: The new research, conducted on people over age 65, adds to the growing evidence that noninvasive stimulation mimicking the rhythmic brain activity that supports cognition can improve memory. Too late. When I was in my forty years, I sometimes got excited and started calling my children by our dog’s name.
Zeroed Out
At my boarding house, you’re a young one when the lady next door says she is 98 years old and her sister down the hall is 102. You’re a youngster, if only in your early 90s. The three 80-year-olds who dine with me haven’t said much about me being a decade older. After all, as they say, age is relative. And sure enough, I’m the oldest relative in my family. All three of my daughters
All Shook Up
Daughter and daughter-in-law bought me—with my credit card—a new bed for my boarding house apartment. Came with an IPhone-size remote control unit. This old man can now push a button to access an adjustable full motion motorized bed base with massage. Anti-snore, stress management and I can raise the mattress when I want to get up. Mattress 3 speed massage function reminded me of my Dad’s many business locations: a yard for his oilfield trucks, warehouses