I was listening to my favorite radio station here in Tucson, KLPX, which plays classic rock. Artists like Aerosmith, Van Halen, Ozzy, ZZ Top, Zeppelin. Same format since 1979, unchanged for the last 32 years.
Anyway, this morning, I heard a commercial for reverse mortgages. For those of you who don’t know about reverse mortgages, they’re only available to persons 62 years of age or older. So, I’m off to pick up a rocking chair. Stay off my lawn while I’m gone.
I used to watch Hit Parade. Which died after rock came in because there were few people who listened to both rock and “classical” pop. That really puts me in the rocker.
I remember feeling a little elderly when a song I remembered from high school came on the radio, with the announcer calling it a “classic oldie”. Madonna’s now a “classic oldie”?
I remember as a kid thinking that 50 was really old due to my 50 year old grandparents looking really old.
Now I’m 50 myself. I don’t look old and I don’t feel old. The only way I know I’m 50 is my eye sight - I can’t focus up close anymore. People are generally shocked when I tell them how old I am.
I think people may be aging slower these days. It isn’t just my imagination or faulty memory either. Looking at old photos of my grandparents they did look old at 50, and at 40 and even in their 30s.
I’m not old, I’m still 21, just with an additional 38 years of on-the-job experience. (That’s what my mental picture is - my body tends to disagree a lot recently - don’t know why.)
I was gently teasing my mother (84) the other day about having a child (me) who’s about to collect his first Social Security check. The next day I remembered an impending family birthday: my beloved baby sister is almost 50. Had me one of them there “Holy Shit!” moments. I felt old. Served me right for razzing Mom.
Our grandparents lived rougher lives. They didn’t have sunscreen, or likely even sunglasses. They didn’t grow up with enriched foods we get now, and they probably did more manual labor even if they worked in white collar jobs. They probably spent more time in extreme weather, may have smoked, and in general wouldn’t have been as appearance obsessed as many people are now. So it’s not surprising the photos show more signs of aging. They’re probably high contrast B&W photos too, which aren’t very flattering for people trying to look young. But just wait, it will catch up with you eventually. I looked younger than my age until I was around 40. That’s why I usually had a beard, to cover up my baby face. Then in no time at all I started looking older than I am. My beard is all gray now, making me look even older, but it’s covering up all that weathering that suddenly appeared. Basically, getting old sucks. You can stave it off for a while, but it gets us all in the end