A Sort of Freedom

I was driving on the Northside, where it is always fun to people watch.  People from all over the world live on the Northside, alongside many whose families have been there forever.  It's such an interesting part of town.  An Italian deli that's been there forever might be next to a new Somali market.  Tattoo parlors are housed in buildings that look like a drugstore with a soda fountain should be in them instead.

And then I saw her.  A little old lady who in certain ways, did not look like an old lady at all.  Though she kind of hobbled, she still had that 1940's movie star sashay.  She was dressed in a perfectly pristine dress that was the height of fashion in the 1940's (well, judging by what Ingrid Bergman wore in Casablanca).  She had a scarf tied around her head to match her dress, just like Ingrid Bergman.  She had on big sunglasses and pumps that matched her handbag.  And she was smiling up into the sun as she sashayed/hobbled down the street, as if she were just so glad to be out on such a beautiful day. She totally pulled it off. I wanted to pull over and ask her to go grab a cup of coffee and with me and tell me about her life.

Do you ever wonder what you'll be like when you're that age? We don't like to think about being old.  It seems scary to acquire more wrinkles and sagging and less agility and mental capacity.  We fight to stay young.  We chase trends and dye our hair. There is a sort of freedom that comes in getting older, though, I suspect.  A permission to not diet or worry about cellulite.   A release from keeping up.  I'm starting to feel it.  And I like the deeper sense of who I am that is taking the place of worrying about stuff I spent way too much time worrying about when I was younger.

When I am that lady's age, I want to sashay down the street dressed up in the clothes that still make me feel good.  I have always wished I could pull of 1940's clothes because I think they are somehow still very chic.  But I can't now so I probably won't in my 70's. I hope I'm not trying to look like a teenager.  I also don't want to adopt the standard old lady wardrobe.  I wonder what I'll wear?  A bandana and t-shirt and cut-offs and canvas sneakers? Khakis and a button down collar shirt and loafers? (I am positive that's what my husband would be wearing: it's what he's been wearing since 1999.  But I would wear a cute little bright colored sweater around my shoulders too). A flowered tunic dress and sandals and a big floppy hat?

 I hope I'm smiling up at the sun, happy to be alive and about on such a beautiful day.