TODAY I’M SIXTY-NINE.

Today my mem’ries haunt me.

I think back through the years

Of boyhood days’ experiences;

It saddens, yet, it cheers.

The way seems long, ‘though all too short,

Perhaps one added sign

That now, today, in warm July

I’ve chalked up Sixty-Nine.

I know not where the years have gone.

Seems but a little while

Since as a schoolboy, “Way Back When”,

I trudged a rugged mile.

I’ve checked events and happenings

To clear back down the line;

I’ve figured pro, I’ve figured con,

But still I’m Sixty-Nine.

Of manual labor did my share,

I’ve tried to use my brain;

I’ve upward climbed the ladder steep,

But often lost my gain.

The job of life, a man-sized task,

And one can’t just resign;

For better or for worse it seems,

Yet still I'm Sixty-Nine.

When cares were pressing, pressing hard,

The time was dragging slow;

But when with joy my heart was filled,

Too swiftly it would go.

I look about on younger men,

But yet, I do not pine,

For somehow there’s a lot of joy

In being Sixty-Nine.

‘Tis true the hills are steeper now,

The summers hotter too;

And winter’s icy blasts congeal

My blood clear through and through.

It seems I can not run as fast,

Although I’m feeling fine:

It just can be that one slows down

When he is Sixty-Nine.

But I would not retrace my steps

E’en though ‘twere in my power;

I would not strain to gain the prize

Of boyhood’s golden hour.

For if I should, I then would lose

Some loved ones who are mine,

For it is they who fill my heart

When I am Sixty-Nine.

One grows, I think, from morn to night,

Through life’s constructive span;

Experience schools the active mind -

A part of God’s great plan.

Of understanding, loyalties,

Capacities combine

And compensate for faltering steps

When one is Sixty-Nine.

We oft refer to “Three Score Ten”,

And as a boy I knew

If one achieved that ripe old age,

Once reached, a man was through.

But somehow values now have changed,

I’ve drunk life’s sparkling wine,

And vision fuller, happier days

Since I am Sixty-Nine.

The influence of mellowing years

Can cleanse a heart of guile,

And even fit a stumbling soul

For God’s Great Afterwhile.

Somehow great peace is in my heart,

And all good things combine

To make me happy, proud and glad

That I am Sixty-Nine.

                              H. B. Austin

                              July 27, 1955

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