Wednesday, December 28, 2005

How did I get so old?

It's been over 20 years since I graduated from college.

How did I get so old?

It's been 25 years since I graduated high school.

How did I get so old?

It's been over ten years since my first child was born.

How did I get so old?

How did I get so old that I remember watching some of the first MTV broadcasts, that I remember the first time preppie was cool, that I was an adult when Challenger exploded, that I feared for the space men when they went to the moon, that I watched "The Banana Splits" when they were on the first time around and not replayed on Boomerang?

How did I get to the point in my life when I have so very MUCH to look back on?

When I was a kid it was the 60's and 70's and clothes were uncomfortable, there were only 3 channels on teevee, we played outside all day long and our parents didn't worry about us getting snatched, platform shoes were all the rage, and I blow-dried my hair into perfect "feathers" and carried a large green comb in my back pocket for endless touchups during the day. Hip huggers were the bane of my existence, I wasn't allowed to wear "dungarees" to school, shirts were glossy polyester or rayon affairs with big splashy graphics across the front and had long pointed collars, and my friends all had gobs of wildly patterned bodysuits with a zipper down the front.

(I hated bodysuits - they made me sweat and were itchy.)

I didn't understand why my parents liked to watch "Happy Days" and "All in the Family," but I liked "The Carol Burnett Show" just as much as they did. Sunday nights there was the "Wonderful World of Disney" and we ate salami sandwiches on thin dark rye bread while watching it (a once-a-week treat).

Telephones and remotes had cords.

We got actual GRADES in school.

My mom did my hair in pink foam rollers on Saturday night so my hair would be perfectly curly for Sunday church.


"Sit on it" was someting people understood, same for "hoser" and "grit" and "dork" and "spaz" and "SPED" and "musicians do it with rhythm" and "breaker breaker, 10-4, good buddy."

It all seems so very quaint now, and is from another era entirely.

How did I go from being young, with the whole world in front of me, to being middle-aged, with a lot of the world behind me?

And more importantly, what do I do with the second half of my life that will top the first half?

(Between you and me, I'm being optimistic about the new NC lottery. Winning a cool few million dollars would be a great jumpstart, you know?)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! You read my mind! Great post. Being a child of the same age, it's great to read someone else reminiscing of those days. The other day I had on a really cool (I thought) skirt, lots of black lace, etc., and my daughter asked what I was thinking. I told her it was my Stevie Nicks look. She asked, "who is HE?" AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Anonymous said...

Oh God, that hurts. Has cross-dressing become so mundane that our children are comfortable with the concept? :>
I'm bound and determined to be a wonderfully crabby old lady - I just have to get through the next 20 years or so before I see myself as "old."

Anonymous said...

Okay, my deer friend, here's another way to look at it, that came to me recently after finding a load of old photo albums I had forgotten existed...in my Xmas leave search through the game cabinet....Those fantastic memories - of Bowie's Fashion video on MTV, vinyl white go go boots, sitting around on a Saturday morning with siblings choosing your favorite Monkey, or Banana Split (Davie, and Flugel or whatever else that damn elephant was called - my older brother got the john lennon lion, and my sister had the dog...fleagel?)those fantastic memories allow you to enjoy these old days...they are also GREAT at parties, or when entertaining your staff - none of which were born pre REAGANOMICS-

Ah, we may be old....but we are Very Very COOL.

Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snork! Makin up a mess of fun, lots of fun for everyone! La la la, la la la la!

At one point in our lives, weren't we not cool, but rather "RAD"? :>