Sunday Concert: Time turns the pages - life goes so fast

After he was a vaudevillian, after he was a stand-up comedian, after he was Gracie's straightman on radio, and then on TV, after Gracie was gone, after he was a serious actor, after he was "God", George Burns took up another career: singer.

During the last 15 years of his remarkable life, George Burns added yet another career: Professional Spry Old Guy.

I actually enjoyed hearing George Burns sing. I remember my daddy enjoying George and Gracie on TV.



I Wish I Was Eighteen Again

At a bar down in Dallas
An old man chimed in
And they thought he was out of his head
And all being young men
They just laughed it off
When they heard what this old man said

He said I'll never again
Turn the young ladies' heads
Or go running off into the wind
I'm three quarters home
From the start to the end
And I wish I was eighteen again

Oh I wish I was eighteen again
And going where I've never been
Now old folks and old oaks
Standing tall, just pretend
I wish I was eighteen again

Time turns the pages
And life goes so fast
The years turn the dark hair all grey
I talk to some young folks
But they don't understand
The words this old man's got to say

Oh I wish I was eighteen again
And going where I've never been
Now old folks and old oaks
Standing tall, just pretend
I wish I was eightee-een again
Oh I wish I was eighteen again...

by Ray Price

Maybe it is my recent visits with Wint Barton, another unbowed nonagenarian, that turned my thoughts to George Burns.

Here are a few George Burns quotes. (There are more here.)

Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made.

Age to me means nothing. I can't get old; I'm working. I was old when I was twenty-one and out of work. As long as you're working, you stay young. When I'm in front of an audience, all that love and vitality sweeps over me and I forget my age.

I was always taught to respect my elders and I've now reached the age when I don't have anybody to respect.

I'd rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate.

If you live to be one hundred, you've got it made. Very few people die past that age.

Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples.

[ And finally one for the new Associate Pastor at Trinity United Methodist Church, Rome, Georgia -- remember this, Jim!]

The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible.

-George Burns (1896-1996)