Never too Old to Be Cool!

Or never too cool to be fun

Came across these photos in my collection and my friend who was here said of this: That’s so cool!

And it is!

My friend, Barrie, aged 79, is vertically challenged following a childhood spinal injury aged 4 and later surgery. His small staure has always made him cute to girls because his tall personality comes over as confident and authorative. As a recent volunteer in his 70s at the local hospital he was highly respected and positively adored by the nursing staff.

He learned to be fashionably cool as a (nearly) rock idol, when playing lead guitar in our local ‘group’, Roy Dwayne and the Roamers. They made it on to TV and had a local following. When it faded he was married, worked in management , did the family thing and grew sedately old, to the unobservant. I was at the other end of the world during that time.

During that time he had a secret life. He was still a musician, a real muso who kept playing albeit at home. And he was still part of the Band, even though they are now unrecognisable from those long haired lads. No hair at all, but still cool! They get together regularly and play the old stuff. The drummer, Gerald writes new stuff. He was always super-cool, as drummers always are.

He drove me to Mum’s funeral and hung around with my cousins while I mingled to thank everyone for coming, and dropped me quietly home after. That was cool.

I didnt intend to tell you all this, I just wanted to share some funny photos to illustrate that you have to be cool just to plonk something you are given on your head without using a mirror and let someone take your photo for fun – dont you?

And then…