Trending
I think I'm going to like being 65.
It doesn't seem like a number that's all that high or over the top now that I'm here and claim it as part of who I am -- a woman of a certain age who's entitled to get a fishing license at a reduced price and to hop aboard the Medicare bus and all that other fun stuff.
Yipee! Oh, the advantages of aging.
Sixty-five is hardly old, I've told myself. After all, other people I went to school with are that age, so I have lots of company, and some of them have arrived there a little sooner and have slightly more experience so I have resources to reach out to if I should need them.
It's no big deal -- just a number on the old age-o-meter, no pun intended.
Sixty-five is the new 55, right?
I was a little derailed, though, when a conversation about age unfolded in the workplace and I mentioned the year I started working at the newspaper -- the tail end of 1979. A co-worker whose age I only would have guessed was less than mine did some quick mental math, summing up our age difference in a way that put things in perspective right quick.
"Oh, I was 4 years old then," she said thoughtfully in looking back at the late 1970s as the vast unknown.
I was 4 once upon a time, too, I suspect, although I can't really vouch for that.
Honestly, age comparisons don't necessarily trouble me. I'll always be a bit immature and on the silly side no matter what my driver's license says my age is. As one birthday wisher pointed out to me in a Facebook message -- "Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional."
I am reminded about what was going on in 1958, my birth year, now that I'm revisiting that information that was in one of those Remember When birthday cards a friend had sent me back in 2008 when I turned the big 5-0. Gee, that was a few years ago! Where did that time go?
Think of today and consider what was happening in 1958:
– Eggs were 28 cents a dozen … and did not require a police escort from the grocery store to the parking lot for security while you put them in the trunk.
– Gas was 24 cents a gallon, and a stamp set you back 4 cents. By today's standards, that would be motivation to travel a lot and write a letter or two.
– In July 1958, Queen Elizabeth gave Prince Charles the title of Prince of Wales. Sixty-five years later, he'll officially be crowned king on May 6.
– In December 1958, the University of Pittsburgh agreed to buy Forbes Field from the Pirates.
– Elvis Presley was inducted in to the Army (and his fans were "All Shook Up.")
– The Air Force Academy opened and so did Pizza Hut.
– Credit cards got a boost when American Express debuted and so did BankAmericard, the forerunner of Visa -- "plastic" news that was all good to the future consumer role I would embrace.
TV favorites back then were "Wagon Train" on NBC; "The Rifleman" on ABC; and "Maverick" on ABC.
I still like all those shows and ever the optimist joke that any day, new episodes will air.
In 1958, Dwight Eisenhower was president; Sam T. Rayburn was speaker of the House of Representatives; and life expectancy was 69.6 years.
And the Hope Diamond was donated to the Smithsonian Museum.
I guess that gets Better Half off the hook for that as a birthday gift.