A morning with the senior citizens.

Our church’s gathering is in a community center where all kinds of people meet during the week. Pottery classes, Boy – and Girl Scouts, Belly dancers, Ballet, Gymnastics and many other groups use the facility. We love being a part of the local community. One of the groups meeting at the center is the Senior Citizens. They invited me to kick their year off with a few words from the Bible and a prayer.

After I spoke and prayed, the hostess introduced two other speakers. The first was the leader of the Girl Scouts. She championed her cause to the seventy year old ladies hoping to get their grand children involved. A pretty harmless idea, or so I thought. In the back sat a mammoth lady, the creases and contours of her face showing many a victory in life’s battles. Getting visibly agitated by the Girl Scouts leader, she stood up and challenged the poor speaker. “Why do you want Girls Scouts if we already have Girl Guides?” she shouted. The Girl Scout Girl told her that the scouts are more adventurous than the guides and rehearsed a list of all their activities. “I’ve done all of them when I was young”, the sage responded. (I couldn’t believe it, the list included flying, river rafting, bungee jumping, rock climbing and adventure sports galore).

“I’ll tell you why we have Girl Scouts”, the old one said, “It’s because American have them and we want to copy them in everything!!!!” The Girl Scout girl survived her presentation and I felt like giving her a pin or something. I realized that it was a tough crowd, I saw nothing yet …

Next up was the local police chief. A man in his late forties, ready to give some neighborly tips to the older ones. After telling them how understaffed they were, and giving reasons why they can’t have a Bobby on the beat, he opened it up for questions. A tiny old lady with a shaking voice asked the first question:

“Officer, if there’s a man on my lawn and I point a gun at him can I shoot him on the run?” .

Pretty aggressive question don’t you think? The officer told her that she can only shoot if her life is in danger, and therefore if there’s a witness they’ll have to testify to the endangerment of her life.

“If there are no witnesses, remember: you’ll have to shoot to kill.”

I tried to imagine the little lady unleashing Rambo or Terminator style – what a picture – try that Quinton Tarantino.

Never underestimate the Senior Citizens folks!