When you are as old as I my friend Very few of us are You will ruefully wonder why my friend Memories seem so far You may squander away or sequester A drop of a precious year But when your best days are yester The rest is twice as dear What good is a field On a fine summer night If you sit all alone with the weeds Or a succulent pear That with each bite you take You spit out a tooth with the seed Before it's to late Stop trying to wait for fortune And fake you're secure of For there's one thing to be sure of There ain't nothing to be sure of Oh! It's time to start living Time to take a little From the world we're given Time to take time For Spring will turn to Fall In just no time at all So when the drearies do attack Or a siege of the sads begins I throw these regal shoulders back And I lift these double chins Now here is a secret I never have told Maybe you'll understand why I believe if I refuse to grow old I shall be young till I die Now I've had my fears And seventy years I've had troubles and tears by the score But the only thing I'd trade them for Is seventy more Oh! There's time to keep living Time to keep on taking From the world we're given Time to take time For Spring will turn to Fall In just no time at all