Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1915 — HAD TO STAY YOUNG [ARTICLE]

HAD TO STAY YOUNG

GRANDMOTHERS COULDN'T AFFORD TO GROW OLD. , Desire to Appear to Advantage Bofore the Third Generation Mada Them Determined to Keep Up to Date. « The two grandmothers were talking, relates Edna K. Wooley In the Kansas City Btar. And of course they were talking about their grandchilddren. They were not old grandmothers, by the way, but the modern kind that keeps very much up to date, mentally and physically. “My oldest grandson and I are great ‘chums,” quoth the plump grandmother. “We go about a great deal together. And it was he who broke me of a lifelong habit that had unconsciously grown upon me and which, I presume, I have inflicted upon my relatives until I made good liars of them all. “You see—er —I’m inclined to he plump, though I never weighed more than 105 till after I was married. I expect I made life a burden to my husband by asking him every time I saw a large woman, ’Am I as fat as that, William?’ And Williain invariably answered with a soothing ‘No, indeed!’ “With my son I was about the same. He was as diplomatic as his father with his T should say not;’ “And I began the same thing with my grandson, who started out by politely denying, as did his forbears. But one day he was either out of temper or he was tired of answering the same old question. “A very large woman was walking ahead of us on the street. She was extraordinarily stout. “ ‘Billy boy,’, said I, ‘am I as fat as that?’ “ ‘Yes, you are!’ answered Billy with emphasis. “And I've never asked anybody that question since,’’ laughed the plump -grandmother. “My oldest grandson paid me a similar compliment,” gurgled the little thin grandmother. “We were walking down street one day when a carriage stopped at the curb. A young man got out and very carefully and tenderly helped out a very old lady. It was just beautiful to see how gently he took care of her. “ ‘See how beautifully he takes care of his old grandmother,’ I said to my small grandson. 'When lam old you will take care of me like that, won't you?” ‘“Why, you’re old now, grandma!’ he informed me.” “I suppose we ought to feel old,” ruminated the plump grandma, after they had laughed in unison, “but somehow I can’t just realize that I’m going on sixty-one. Seems to me I get younger with every grandchild that arrives.” “Exactly,” agreed the little thin grandmother. ‘1 am living the third generation now, and I feel just as fresh as when I started out on the first.” “I pity people who-grow old and haven’t any grandchildren to keep them young,” quoth the plump grandmother. “It’s my growing kiddies that keeps me hustling up to the minute. I can’t afford to be a back number and lose their respect.” “Exactly,” again agreed the other. “People who won’t have children because they’re a nuisance and expense, don’t know what they’ll miss when they get old. I’m glad I was old-fash-ioned enough to have a family.”