Thursday was my birthday, and a very nice one it was, but I did spend some time thinking about the number of years. My goodness. How did I manage to get so old?
When I was a kid, I couldn’t imagine being this age, or for that matter, anyone being this age. That was a long time ago, and people didn’t live quite as long then, but still.
As a man in my twenties and thirties, I didn’t think about age much at all, other than in a very casual way, such as knowing the ages of family, friends, pets, maybe someone famous. I just never thought “When I’m (age), I’ll (be, do…)”. So yesterday when I woke up and thought “It’s my birthday, I’m … years old. My God.” It’s a shock. I don’t feel that old. I don’t think I look that old. It’s true, I may act that old and I guess the number of visits I have to make to medical people would indicate I’m not in the full flush of my manhood (hmm, was I ever?), but that many decades? Wow.
I was also thinking of all the things that we had when I was growing up that are gone, and all the things we have now that didn’t exist then. Sometimes I think it was a better world without computers, certainly without smart phones and social media. Not that I miss party lines, or rotary dial phones, or having to change the channel on the television by getting up, walking over and manually turning the selector to the channel setting I wanted.
But, gosh. I’m old. I think I’ll go take a walk.
Tip the Wink 
I know what you mean, Richard. My birthday is in little over a week. Thinking about my age never used to bother me but now it has finally hit me. I don’t feel old but I am getting old enough to wonder how many years of reading I will have left, etc. But I do appreciate the years I have had.
And a happy belated birthday to you. On my birthday weekend my husband and son cook the meals I choose and I get to pick movies to watch and I am so looking forward to it.
Happy birthday, Rick. This post reminds me of the movie LUCKY, where he never thought about dying at all until he fainted in his nineties.
Age is just a number. Have as much fun as you can before time runs out!
Happy birthday, Rick!
I have just three comments. Feel free to choose whichever one is applicable:
1) You’re not getting older; you’re getting better.
2) Age is just a number and yours has not yet reached triple digits. Or has it?
3) As you get older, there’s a certain joy in knowing that you have outlived many of the s.o.b.s in your life.
Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday Richard, and remember we’re all going the same way 🙂
I know the feeling. Hope you had a great birthday
Thanks, everyone, your comments are very much appreciated. It’s another pretty day today, nice Fall weather. Hope you are all enjoying your Fall as well.
Happy Birthday! Mine is coming next month (day after Thanksgiving) and I’ve had a lot of the identical thoughts, some prompted by our 47th Anniversary last Tuesday. How could it be possible? 47 years? I remember the 50th Anniversaries of various relatives and they seemed so much older. I mean, I look at the numbers and yeah, I get it, we’re old (sort of, in some ways), but most of the time I don’t feel old. I mean, when I think back 50 or 60 years, then yes, I have to acknowledge it, but otherwise, not so much.
But you kids, keep off my lawn!
Hope you had a terrific day. But you know what I think is true? Is that we are really getting younger as the definition of what is “old” is stretched further and further forward. All the best and “Tanti Auguri”
Many happy returns of the day, Richard.
Belated happy birthday. I share your astonishment and realization that there are many more years behind us than in front. I’ll be 70 very soon and I’m glad I don’t feel the full brunt of that ancient, advanced age.
Jerry’s advice may be all too familiar, but it’s also very wise. And I will remember #3 especially when I pass the next decade milepost in four years. My best and belated wishes for your continued rich and full and long life, Rick! Barbara, I’m sure, is very happy to have you along for the ride.
Belated happy birthday, Rick. And I know exactly what you mean too. My granddaughter recently asked me how old I was and when I told her she said, “Wow, you’re almost a hundred.” Ha!
Gosh! It happens to other folks, too. They get older, just like me. Happy Birthday! Don’t let the number get to you. And while I’m at it, Happy Anniversary to Jeff and Jackie. In twenty years they will catch up with Anna and I. It’s glad to see the blog up and running again.
Hopefully I’ll pick up the pace soon.
Happy belated! All sympathies, as I’m currently croggling at the fact that my earliest clear memories date back fifty years at this point…while dealing at a remove with my father not being able to consistently nor clearly recall anything more recent than about 65 years ago. Hoping things are generally on the upswing, and hope you’re still taking those walks…