The body ages faster than the mind

By Dan Barber

I have been told that once you have learned to ride a bicycle you never forget, but that can be a dangerous thing, especially for an old man with a 20-year old mind set.

A few years back the United States Navy thought that it would be a good thing to send me back to school a couple of years before I turned 50. This was not a standard military school it was at the University of Oklahoma. Several people were picked each year from all branches of the Department of Defense and other selected government agencies like the IRS, NASA and CIA to attend and study communications theory. Each class of students numbered about 20 people.

Kaitlyn during this past season's
All Star Tournament play.

Matthew sinking a basket at
one of his Park and Rec Games.

For the three months while at the university we were all required to live in student housing. Students were were assigned to share a two bedroom, two-bath apartment with one of the other government students. The apartment complex was located in Norman, Oklahoma adjacent to the campus and the Sooners baseball practice fields. Each of my classmates and I were each lent a bicycle to use during our 3-month stay and a bus pass so we could access all facilities on the campus, and in the near by town of Norman. Some of my fellow students had cars, but I opted not to bring mine. The entire area of Norman and the university is mostly geographically flat so I used the bicycle for my transportation around the campus and into town.

During my stay there I had become more physically fit than I had been in many years. I used my bike to go to class, to go to the movies in town, the library and just for the fun of riding around the campus and in town. Some of my classmates were younger military people who thought they were already physically and mentally fit so their pastime was to visit a local bar to work on class assignments, drink beer and watch “South Park.”  I never enjoyed sitting in a bar, for me it was and is very boring and I grew out of watching cartoons when I started Junior High School. I also knew that it was not possible for me to grasp the complexities of communications theories while setting in a bar sipping on a beer in front of a TV with the channel tuned to cartoons.

At that time I was an old man in a young person's world who was being re-energized physically, spiritually and mentally in that youthful world. My atrophied muscles were growing stronger from use. My brain was also being exercised with sitting for several hours a day in class and from working on a research project. My brain that hadn’t seen the light of new knowledge in years was actually developing new ideas.

My roommate was a Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant who worked in the Commandant of the Marine Corps office. He was always running everywhere he went. Marines are like that because I think it is a requirement that they run so many miles each day. I once tried running with my roommate, but I almost died before I got out of our apartment complex. I even went to the gym with him one time, but was too embarrassed to try to lift any kind of weight. But on a bicycle I allowed myself to be transported back in time. I must have looked the site, an old grey haired man peddling around the school like a damned fool, but I didn’t care.

When reality hit me it was a beautiful warm day with the campus full of young people. I was headed back to my apartment with an arm load of books and a curb in front of me… I remembered being able jump over just such a curb many times before…when I was a kid! That is when my analogy of bike riding and being old with a youthful mind set came crashing together.

I did not damage anything except for my pride. But I’m sure that it was one of those occasions when I was the cause of a great deal of laughter. I did not

hang around long enough to notice.

Brianna at third base in high school
 fast-pitch action last year.

I now live vicariously through my grandchildren and their academic and athletic abilities. Now that I’m retired, I have resigned myself to be an observer of their adventures because I have discovered that my 15-year old granddaughter is much too scary to even play catch with anymore… she has been playing fast-pitch softball for nine years now and she has developed a very strong arm and those softballs really hurt when they hit you!

A lesson I also learned as a baseball/softball fan is to never look up when someone yells “Head’s up!” That term should be changed to “Duck” or bring a heavy duty canvas pop-up or umbrella to all games… it prevents sun-burns and concussions.

Until next time, enjoy.