The Year Was 1958

"Thanks to modern medical advances such as antibiotics, nasal spray and Diet Coke, it has become routine for people in the civilized world to pass the age of 40, sometimes more than once."
-- Dave Barry

As I turn the corner on my fifth decade, I find myself looking for humor as a way to deal with the pain I feel every day I get out of bed.  Physical pain from my plantar fasciitis, and the psychological pain from Washington politicians coming from the radio.

If given a choice I'd take physical pain every day.  There's medication to help with that, of course.  But after 55 years, I'm still looking for some type of pain relief from politicians.

At this point, I'd rather have a colonoscopy than listen to President Obama.  At least during the colonoscopy I'm mostly unconscious...

Today, my sister sent a birthday card.  That's something that hasn't happened in I don't know how many years (Tina, do you know something that I don't?).  Typically, I'm not big on birthday cards -- I don't need birthday greetings from people I hardly know, just mom, family and a few friends.  I really don't know why businesses send birthday cards.  My previous broker dealer still sends me a card even though I left them 8 years ago.  Somehow, I'm still in their computer system and I will be for as long as I stay with my current employer.  Isn't technology great?

Today, I guess Facebook and other social media outlets have a firm grip on birthday celebrations.  Every other week I get a notice from Facebook that reminds me to send a birthday greeting.  Type "Happy birthday, Brian!"  Hit the enter key.  Join a dozen other electronic greetings guaranteed to make his day.  Technology has a way of either keeping you young, or reminding you just how old you really are.

All I know is that birthdays tend to remind you of how much things change.

I have to remind my youngest son that I come from an era when neighbors would talk to each other over their backyard fence and use the (only) phone in the house with other neighbors who shared the party line.  Watching movies on television was an occasion -- I can remember mom making me take my Saturday night bath before I could watch Robinson Crusoe on Mars.  And CBS was the place to be on Thursday and Friday night to watch a two-part showing of The Guns of Navarone starring Gregory Peck and David Niven.  Today, you can download RC on Mars from MovieBerry.com for free and watch The Guns of Navarone three times in two weeks on TBS.

Too much of a good thing just becomes ... normal.



"A friend never defends a husband who gets his wife an electric skillet for her birthday."
-- Erma Bombeck

It's funny how I've been receiving birthday presents for all these years and yet most of them I can't remember.  Sure, there's been shirts, pants and ties that have come and gone.  But that's about it.

I seem to have an easier time remembering presents I bought for someone else than my own gifts. Fear must be a more formidable emotion than anticipation, because I can still remember the reaction I got from Liz when I bought her a set of pots and pans for her birthday.  Something about the angry shape of her eyes and the flare of her nostrils told me my well-intentioned gift wasn't going to be thought of the same way.  I'm just glad I didn't decide to buy that set of cutlery I was eying.

I do remember getting a GI Joe action astronaut with space capsule for my birthday when I was in seventh grade.  I don't know what was so cool about it, but I enjoyed it enough that I took it to school for show and tell.  Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought it was cool -- when I went to pick it up at the end of the school day, I discovered someone had stolen it.  I never did find out what happened to it, but today when I look on Amazon I can find one that sells for $299.  I hope whoever took it from me kept it in good shape.



 

Another birthday gift that I remember was a Batman coloring book.  Back in my day, Batman wasn't the dramatic Black Knight movie star that he is today.  The television series (which ran from 1966-1968) was a campy series featuring Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin.  As a young boy, however, I loved it.  So much so in fact that my friends and I used to play in the front yard, imitating the "CRASH!" "POW!" and "BAM!" that was always a part of the show's inevitable showdown between Batman and the Penguin, Riddler or Joker.


I had a thing for Cat Woman and Batgirl who -- thanks to their costume designers -- always drew more attention to their tight fitting catsuits and high heels than their combat readiness.  But then again, the show was designed for young boys like me who had more curiosity in girls than common sense.

I wonder if Crayola still makes crayon boxes with the built-in sharpener?  Oh, for the good old days when my biggest concern was coloring inside the lines.



"Wherever the past has gone, the best is always yet to come."
--Mark Twain

My sister sent me a book that lists some of the events that took place during the year I was born, which is always fun to look through.  Some of them you can't believe actually occurred during your lifetime -- they seem better suited for a history book than for something I lived through.

For example, cost of living:  back in 1958, a new house cost $11,975; a new car topped out at $2,155; tuition at Harvard University was $1,000 per year; gasoline cost 24 cents a gallon, and you could mail a letter with the help of a 4 cent stamp.

In world news:  the President of the United States was Dwight Eisenhower (Vice President was Richard Nixon); TIME magazine "Man of the Year" was Charles De Gaulle (French president); James Dean, who became a cultural icon in "Rebel Without A Cause," died at the age of 24; NASA was founded as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the U.S.; Lego toy bricks were introduced to children; and the aluminum can was first used as a food container.

In movies:  Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo; Vincent Minnelli's Gigi; Richard Brook's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; and Orson Well's Touch of Evil.  And, of course, my favorite -- Terence Brooks' Horror of Dracula (should have won the Academy award for best movie).

In the end, no matter how many birthdays come and go, the real test of how old you are is this:  are you able to still do the things you want?  And enjoying them? 

Three activities give me hope.

I still playing basketball -- running the court's 94 feet takes a little longer, but I'm still getting 15,000 steps in 3 times a week.  My 3 point shot still goes in.  In fact it may be better today than years ago (and no, Tom, I didn't travel on that one).  I can honestly say that without that hour of basketball, my workdays would be a lot longer, so how can I complain about that?  As we always say at the end of a bad day of hoops, "there's always next time."  See?  Sometimes forgetting things isn't all that bad.

Liz and I have been dancing for the last ten years -- the complexities of the fox trot, tango, swing and samba have faded as we continue to take lessons from the Moonlight Dance Studio.  If someone had told me I'd be dancing -- and enjoying -- the same dances my parents did years ago, I'd have called him a liar.  I'm not sure what got Liz and I started (maybe it was one of those birthday presents I can't remember), but we were dancing the light fantastic long before TV's "Dancing With The Stars" became popular.  And as long as the ankles and my arches hold up, you'll find us dancing at La rosse's Concordia Ballroom and dance clubs in Winona, Fountain City, Rochester and Baraboo.

Two of my best friends and I get together every year to celebrate each others birthdays.  It's usually over lunch and not very expensive.  The same group decided to get together at the Recovery Room bar to celebrate our fiftieth birthday.  Between work, friends and family we had a pretty good turnout.  My feelings about both are its great as long as all three of us are living.  We've been through so much that I feel closer to them than my brother or sisters.  School, roommates, weddings and our children's graduations are imprinted into my mind --  and every year we keep adding more and more memories.  It will not be the same when one of us is gone...

So (for my 55th birthday) while the world is changing around me, the people I know are changing as well (there's a perverse sense of satisfaction in knowing that).  In my general circle of friends I'm one of the oldest.  So in some ways, I'm pioneering the way.

We all struggle with smaller electronics, but appreciate what they bring to the table.  We all wake up with aches and pains in the morning, but still remember how we got them.  And I bet we all recognize the people in the mirror, even if they have a little more gray in their hair. 

Here's to 1958 -- and every year since.