Bob

Batz

Read Bob's bio and previous columns

October 20, 2008

Up There in Years? Join the Ray Wilkinson Club!

I’m starting a new organization for men and women who are in their 60s, 70s and 80s.

I’m calling it the “Ray Wilkinson Club” in honor of the spunky 67-year-old retired carpenter and former Marine who lives in Surfside Beach, Tex. and opted to ride out Hurricane Ike instead of fleeing his home as so many others did on Sept. 17.

After police ordered Wilkinson and his neighbors to leave the area, Wilkinson, chewing tobacco and drinking beer, rode out the storm on his front porch with a tattered American flag flapping beside him.

“I’m just tired of running from these things,” he told newspaper reporters. “If it’s going to get you, it’s going to get you.”

Wilkinson paused, then added, “I didn’t say I had all my marbles, OK?”

As a tribute to Ray Wilkinson’s devil-may-care attitude, I’ve named my new club after him. The official drink of club members will be Jack Daniels and Geritol.

It’ll be a neat club because there won’t be any meetings, or dues. We won’t elect officers, either.

I believe we deserve our own club because there are enough of us in America right now to elect a president and probably cast enough votes to put together both the American and National League All-Star teams.

I believe our first goal as Ray Wilkinson Club members is to decide what we want to be called now that we are . . . um . . . older.

There already are plenty of names for . . . well . . . those “more mature” men and women out there but, unfortunately, all of them are totally unacceptable.

Do we want to be called Geezers? Nope. Old-timers? Uh-uh. Golden-agers? No way!

When it comes to names for us, many have been tried over the years, including coots, codgers, senior citizens and oldsters.

During the Civil War there was a special unit of older fighting men who called themselves “The Graybeards.”

Unfortunately, however, most of the nicknames given more mature men and women these days are downright unflattering, and that’s the major issue members of the Ray Wilkinson Club will address.

To join, all you have to do is e-mail me at bbatz@butlertownship.com and give me your name, your age and the name of the town where you live.

I’ll get back to you . . . as soon as I find my reading glasses.  

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

Click here to talk to our writers and editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.

To e-mail feedback about this column, click here. If you enjoy this writer's work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry it.

This is Column # BB133. Request permission to publish here.