60 Things: A Year To Remember

By Dianne Young

Sixty is not old, right?

To celebrate turning 60, Dianne Young decided to spend the year doing 60 things she'd never done before. This is the story of her adventures--shaving her head, skydiving, visiting a nudist camp, and 57 other intriguing first-evers. It's funny, it's informative, and it might even inspire you to start your own list! Just don't try haggis. Seriously. Just don't.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dianne Young
• Release date: Jul 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781777280109

Dianne Young

Dianne Young has always preferred trying new things to practising the same ones over and over--just ask her childhood piano teacher! The mantra “You never know until you try” gave Dianne the incentive to leap out of her comfort zone and prove to herself that turning 60 is not so bad after all. A mother, a writer, a birder, a widow, a retiree - Dianne lives with her dog, Posey, and her cat, Lysette, in Martensville, Saskatchewan.

Book preview

60 THINGS: A Year to Remember

Dianne Young

Published by Dianne Young

Copyright © 2020 Dianne Young

Cover by Olivia Swerhone-Wick

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without prior written permission of the author/publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

All inquiries should be directed to:

[e-mail]

ISBN-13: 978-1-7772801-0-9 (EPUB)

ISBN-13: 978-1-7772801-1-6 (MOBI)

Dedication

To Linda Aksomitis and the other Robins

for giving me the knowledge and the confidence to publish this book myself.

Table of Contents

Prologue

100 Things I’ve Never Done

The Adventures

Number One - Shave my head

Update (one week)

Update (one month)

Update (six months)

Update (one year)

Number Two - Float in a sensory deprivation tank

Number Three - Get my eyebrows threaded

Number Four - Visit the Remai Art Gallery

Number Five - Get an acupuncture treatment

Update

Number Six - Start learning German

Update (one week)

Update (one month)

Update (six months)

Number Seven - Try axe throwing

Number Eight - Try scuba diving

Number Nine - Go to a Rush game

Number Ten - Get my hair dyed

Update

Number Eleven - Get a manicure

Update

Number Twelve - Take a belly dancing class

Number Thirteen - Play the harp

Number Fourteen - Volunteer with the Nature Conservancy of Canada

Number Fifteen - Try lawn bowling

Number Sixteen - Go on a hot air balloon ride

Number Seventeen - Visit the Yukon

Update

Number Eighteen - Visit Alaska

Number Nineteen - Travel in a truck camper

Number Twenty - Drink a Sourtoe Cocktail

Number Twenty-one - Go on a paddlewheeler

Number Twenty-two - Pan for gold

Number Twenty-three - Ride a Ninebot

Number Twenty-four - Volunteer at the Jazz Festival

Number Twenty-five - Visit the Tunnels of Moose Jaw

Number Twenty-six - Get a personalized license plate

Number Twenty-seven - Paddle a dragon boat

Number Twenty-eight - Try folk dancing

Number Twenty-nine - Start learning to play the trombone

Number Thirty - Get a henna tattoo

Number Thirty-one - Go skinny dipping

Number Thirty-two - Smoke marijuana

Number Thirty-three - Go to Folkfest

Number Thirty-four - Eat haggis

Number Thirty-five - Do a tandem parachute jump

Number Thirty-six - Celebrate my birthday in the summer

Number Thirty-seven - Drink a martini

Number Thirty-eight - Attend a nudist camp

Number Thirty-nine - Attend a sing-along movie

Number Forty - Try paddleboarding

Number Forty-one - Compose a choir piece

Update

Number Forty-two - Compose a handbell piece

Number Forty-three - Visit the (2nd) biggest tree in Saskatchewan

Number Forty-four - Visit the Crooked Trees

Number Forty-five - Volunteer at Ronald McDonald House

Number Forty-six - Attend a pow wow

Number Forty-seven - Eat smoked cheese

Number Forty-eight - Attend a Buddhist meditation class

Number Forty-nine - Try tenpin bowling

Number Fifty - Tour a mosque

Number Fifty-one - Visit the Canadian Light Source synchrotron

Number Fifty-two - Get a reflexology treatment

Number Fifty-three - Drive a snowmobile

Number Fifty-four - Try downhill skiing

Number Fifty-five - Visit Hawaii

Number Fifty-six - Go in a submarine

Number Fifty-seven - Go on a cruise

Number Fifty-eight - Go parasailing

Number Fifty-nine - Play blackjack at a casino

Number Sixty - Get a tattoo

Epilogue

The 60 Things I Did

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Other Books by Dianne Young

Prologue

August 15th

Sixty is not old, right?

When I was a little girl, 60 was old! That gray-haired lady that smells like lavender? "I betcha she’s 60. That bald guy who shuffles along with a walker? He’s 60 for sure."

In six months, I will be 60.

That little girl still lives in my head, and when I think about my upcoming birthday, she pipes up, Wow! That’s really old!

Shut it, kid.

Society tries to soften the blow. Age is just a number. Yeah, but it’s getting to be a big number.

Sixty is the new fifty. Sure, just like kale is the new lettuce.

You’re only as old as you feel. Well then, some days I must be 90! The guys from Rice Krispies can’t compete with the snaps, crackles and pops my joints produce just getting me out of bed some mornings. But in the spring, on a walk in the park with my dog, Posey—I’m 30. Everything looks fresh, everything smells new and I feel young. In some social situations—like a room full of strangers—I’m 13. Go introduce yourself, I hear my mother saying, in the back of my mind. Mo-om! And if I’m short on sleep, look out—I’m four. I’m not tired! You’re tired! Go away!

But the calendar says I’ll be 60 in six months.

People have started asking, So what are you going to do for your birthday? Good question. Moving into a new decade does seem worthy of some kind of celebration. Not just a big party—I did that for my 50th. Maybe a ride in a hot air balloon! I’ve always wanted to do that. Or a cruise! That would be nice. Or maybe I could learn to play the trombone! How fun would that be! It’s so hard to choose just one thing. That’s when that little girl pipes up again, Then do 60 things!

Hmmm. Not a bad idea, kid. I do like a challenge. If I spread it out over the whole year, that’s only five new things a month. Totally doable, and it would certainly be a year to remember!

Okay. The first thing I need to do is to come up with a list—Things I’ve Never Done. I better come up with at least a hundred, so I have some choices. They don’t have to be earth-changing, but they might be me-changing, or me-sustaining, or at the very least, fun. I’ll go on Facebook—if that doesn’t signal that I’m old, I don’t know what does—and ask my friends for suggestions. I’m sure they’ll come up with some doozies, because trust me, if you think I’m weird, you should meet my friends!

Sixty is not old. Not too old anyway. So, to misquote Bette Davis—"Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy year!"

But in a good way.

November 15th

Three months to go.

My list is complete! My friends did indeed come up with some amazing suggestions:

‣ ride an elephant

‣ go parasailing

‣ get a tattoo

Also some terrible ones:

‣ create a new recipe—I have enough trouble following existing ones.

‣ drive a race car—I once punched out the back window of my parents’ little truck by backing into a balcony. I don’t think me and excessive speed would be a good mix.

‣ ride a mechanical bull—Do they even still have those? But even if they do, I’m not athletic enough to ride it at normal speed and not sexy enough to ride it at slow speed.

Some that I’ve already done:

‣ go whitewater rafting

‣ learn to hula hoop

‣ fly a glider

And some that I will never do:

‣ steer riding

‣ bungee jumping

‣ motorcycling

But all in all, I think it’s a pretty awesome list.

100 Things I’ve Never Done

1. Go on a hot air balloon ride

2. Go on a cruise

3. Learn to play the trombone

4. Play a harp

5. Drive a combine

6. Drive a snowmobile

7. Drive a Jet Ski

8. Travel in a truck camper

9. Write a poem in a foreign language

10. Compose a piece for handbells

11. Shave my head

12. Dye my hair

13. Get a facial

14. Get a manicure

15. Get my eyebrows threaded

16. Get a tattoo

17. Celebrate my birthday in the summer

18. Volunteer at the Friendship Inn

19. Make a souffle

20. Eat a frog’s leg

21. Eat marijuana-infused chocolate

22. Eat sashimi

23. Eat a raw oyster

24. Eat haggis

25. Have my fortune told

26. Go wall climbing

27. Rappel down a building

28. Do a tandem parachute jump

29. Try axe throwing

30. Try fencing

31. Try lawn bowling

32. Learn to juggle

33. Learn to ride a unicycle

34. Try a pogo stick

35. Try downhill skiing

36. Try snowboarding

37. Try paddleboarding

38. Try tubing

39. Try scuba diving

40. Ride a Crazy Carpet down sand dunes

41. Do a chin-up

42. Try folk dancing

43. Try clogging

44. Try geocaching

45. Play blackjack at a casino

46. Participate in a fishing derby

47. Pan for gold

48. Attend a sweat lodge

49. Attend a pow wow

50. Attend a Jewish worship service

51. Attend a Muslim worship service

52. Attend a Buddhist Meditation class

53. Attend a silent retreat

54. Attend a nudist camp

55. Attend a sing-along movie

56. Attend a bluegrass festival

57. Attend a lacrosse game

58. Attend Folkfest

59. Attend Taste of Saskatchewan

60. Milk a goat

61. Drink a martini

62. Drink green beer on St. Patrick’s Day

63. Smoke marijuana

64. Take a stained glass class

65. Take an anti-gravity class

66. Take an aerial yoga class

67. Take a tai chi class

68. Take a belly dancing class