Keeping Healthy

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle

Coming soon: More Tales of Harper (an ebook on Amazon)

This morning our barbershop gang got to talking about resolutions for 2014. Then the subject melded over into keeping healthy. All sorts of theories popped up; an apple a day, walking, dieting, and not worrying so much were mentioned. That's when a stranger came into the shop for a shave and haircut. He was using a walker and breathing real heavy. We thought he would be a good one to ask since he had obviously lived longer than the rest of us. The question came out, "To what do you attribute the state of your health." He answered, "I drink a lot, probably a fifth a day. I reckon I smoke over two packs of unfiltered cigarettes a day and I can't begin to count the number of women I have been with. I reckon that just about sums it up." We stood in amazement until Jack Ledderfed asked, "Just how old are you?" The stranger answered, "If I make it until next May the twelfth, I will be thirty-four years old."