The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1917-07-27
Dorothy Dix Says
GROWING OLD.
BY Dorothy Dix
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.

counts its weakness unto itself for
virtue.
Why then should we not guard our
selves against the temptations OF age.
even as VIC guarded ourselves against
the temptations Of youth We might
begin with the first temptation, which
!, to be comfortable instead OF smart
m dress. II is SO easy to degenerate
into the stocking fee, and no oorsct>
state OF ease at home, and from that the
descent into the it-doesn't-mattcr-how
l-look-because lm.old habit, that
makes 50 many elderly people look as
II they were candidates for the rag
bag and the bathtub.
AT no other time IN their whole lives
do people need good clothes and good
grooming so much as they do after the
beauty Of youth has fled Sweet-and-
twenty can be attractive in spite OF a
kimono aud down-at the heels slippers,
Or picturesque IN negligce shirt AMI
sneakers, but sixty-odd needs all the
attractions that exquisite reatnesS and
the best drcSSmakers and tallors can
throw about It.
The next weakness Of age against
! which we should guard ourselves is
garrulousnesS. Why should any sane
person pcrri, himself to talk too much
any more than he would drink too
much We all know whsp our tongues
are running away with us and If we
have any intelligence at all we put the
. ar,eTpspFu hrala. n, aud ,tAp ,I.p,
Why should We not keep tab on our
/ selves as we grow old and s~efrain from
I telling the same story over and over
again, The mere fact that a story is
our t%avorltc story Is sufficient warn
ing IN itself to make us shut our teeth
n II when we are tempted to relate IT,
There are also other warnings not to
be mistaken, the bored and lack lustcr
eye, the p%crtunctory attention, the
forced laugh. All of these are indica
tons that the listener has heard the
story a thousand times before, and that
II We don't wish to qualify in the an
cicnt mariner class, 1t is time, in the
slang OF the day, TO can that particular
narrative.
Another fault OF old age that SIC
should guard ourselves against l., in
living IN the past, and remini,cing
about our " personal affairs. II is
a cruel fact, hut It is a fact, that no
body on earth takes the slightest in
terest III things that happened To us
forty years ago, OF cares a whoop about
what We did at the Battle Of Gc,tyS.
burg, or how we nurScu our little
Johnnie through the %whooping cough
Yet old people will maundcr on by thu
hour about their " l~nconseouential
histories and then wonder why nobody
seems to care to talk to them.
Rut the greatest fault Of al that age
must guard against is becoming die
tatorlal and tyrannical, Because we
arrive at the age Of seventy is no Siat
that we are incarnA,e wisdom and ca
pable OF deciding every problem on
earth Very likely we have been a fool
during the whole time, vet many peo-
pie who have made failures of their
own lives feel that Just because they
are old they have a right 10 impose
their opinions and views on all about
them. .
There Is really no reason why we
should dread age, or fear that we
should lose the interest Of our fellow
creatures Just because wc arc old In
reality old people have far less cx-
cuse Tor being borcs than the young
have. Men and women Of seventy five
should he three times AS interesting a.
they were at twenty-five. They have
seen the whole drama Of life. They
have lived They are rich in knowl.
edge and experience, and they are the
most fascinating of all companion,
when they have kept themselves Tree
from the faults Of age.
All Of us know such people. old men
and women a, whose feet we love to
sit, and whose visits arc bcnedlctions
on a house,