Allston Kinsley "Al" Thorndike Jr., 97, ate a carrot every day
He was an avid walker and regularly walked to work. He avoided processed foods and didn't smoke or drink. He ate a carrot every day. Among his favorite sayings: "You have to take it easy going down the old Zambezi."
I like old Thorndike's old fashioned corny kind of phrase that he was known to frequently utter, "You have to take it easy going down the old Zambezi." I love that kind of stuff. I would never, myself, have the guts to say that kind of stuff in public as I'd be too self-conscious and embarrassed to come off like a cornball (and more's the pity that I'm not more like the apparently unselfconscious and better grounded and centered Al Thorndike). But I always like it when old people do. For me, it is evocative and reminds me of an easier slower-paced time. More importantly, though, if he truly lived that phrase and it was indelibly etched in the very fabric of his life, then therein lies the revelation of why he managed to live a lengthy 97 years.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Peter. I appreciate a well-turned phrase myself. My Uncle Frank, dead lo these past nine years, used to say, "Jumpin' Jimminy Cricket," whenever he was astounded by some childlike accomplishment.
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