On The Right Side Of The Grass!

Williamsburg has an incredible number of quality restaurants which bring many of our tourists great delight! Whether it is traditional food, oriental cuisine, or "south of the border" comida. We have it all! We, also, have all the popular "chain" restaurants and my favorite is Cracker Barrel! I just returned from having lunch at CB and that visit prompted todays' blog.

All of the servers at CB know me and pretty much know what I am going to order when I arrive, especially for lunch. There are a couple of them that don't even ask, they just bring me my iced tea and say they have placed my order! I guess I go there way too much!

But, today was different! They have a new host!

I was greeted by a gentleman a few years my senior and he was very pleasant! The experienced hostess told him where I like to sit and handed him a menu. As we arrived at my table near the window, I introduced myself as did he. His comment was, "I am new here. I just started yesterday and I guess you must be a regular!" I put my arm around him and said, "Welcome to CB! You will enjoy working with the young folk here as they are a nice bunch of 'kids'!" He laughed and told me that yesterday went great and you could see on his face the delight he had in making that announcement to me. We laughed and he went on to seat others.

While eating lunch I thought about how many "seniors" are now going back to work! Oh, I know that we are living longer and have better health care than did our parents, but I wondered why this gentleman had gone back to work. Was it an economical decision? Was it because he was bored sitting at home after retiring? Was he lonely due to the death of his spouse? Did he need some money to support a pasttime? I am guessing, but I think one of the above might have been the reason.

I am seeing more and more "seniors" working at Wal-mart, driving a train at Busch Gardens, volunteering in Colonial Williamsburg and Sentara Hospital, and a number of other places. I think it is great! There is no reason that a person should be put out to pasture because he or she has reached a chronological age that has been determined to be "retirment age!" If a person can and wants to retire, fine, but not everyone desires to quit!

Seniors have accomplished much in their later years! Some have created masterpieces of art and music during their latter years! Others have made incredible discoveries in science and medicine when they were old enough to retire! Still others have vigorously been able to serve God and others with the wisdom gained from a lifetime of ministry!

I had an older man tell me this morning, "As long as I am on the right side of the grass, I am going to keep on working!" The he added, "I don't want any lawnmower giving me a shave every morning!"

Now, get back to work and enjoy every minute of it!