It’s a weird feeling when you start noticing that lots of the people in charge of things are your age. My wife’s cousins are both doctors and sure, they are smart as whips but these are the same people I’ve held upside down over a keg after a catholic wedding. I guess my point is that the older you get, the more you realize that none of us really know what the hell is going on and never have. I’m ten years older right now than my momma was the day she had me, and I very much consider myself to be a growing boy still, regardless of how the rest of the world feels.
I’m 34, and that’s the type of age that don’t do nobody no good. Everyone that is actually old considers me a whippersnapper still, but to the Tik Tok crowd, I may as well go ahead and pick out a plot for my wife and me and put the first payment down. Won’t be long anyhow. 34 is the age where your mind first starts getting ahead of your body in a way. My bones ain’t hurt long enough for me to be used to it, so sometimes I’ll still think that it’s OK to take a nap in a car with my head in my lap. It is not. “Sheeeweee, that’ll make your spine crooked’er than a politician!” my Granny would say when I was a kid laying on the carpet watching Porter Wagoner with my legs over my head. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with me now.
Sitting on the couch with my Dad a few Sundays back, I commented that I was older than everyone playing Football. “Wait till you are older than the coaches” He said. “Then come talk to me about old!”. Dad turned 63 today, and I won’t be there to celebrate with him because I’m out in California chasing that crazy dream of mine. I don’t reckon I feel too bad about it, I still got him a gift and everything, and lord knows the man aint one for a party. As a matter of fact, I bet if I call Momma real quick, I can get her to just not remind him that it’s his birthday, and we’ll all be in the clear. He is old after all…. you know how they are.