As I was taking my lunch-time hill run this afternoon, I contemplated my upcoming 47th birthday. I am 3 years away from moving into the 50-year-old age bracket. I don’t feel almost 50. I guess it’s better than being almost 90?
I’ve never thought about what it would feel like to be a 47-year-old man. Grown up, maybe?
I was a teen-ager just yesterday. I remember having an Air Supply 45 playing over and over again in my bedroom and going to see E.T., Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Star Trek II, the Wrath of Khan probably a dozen times. I recall high-school basketball game and driving around in my then classic 1965 Mustang with Lionel Ritchie, Journey and Michael Jackson soundtracks in the tape player that we had mounted in the car. I remember Regan being shot and the first Space Shuttle accident. That all just happened like a week ago.
I did some quick math and realized that a sixteen year old getting their driver’s license this year would have been born during the last year of the first Clinton Administration. That was the year Clinton ran against Bob Dole and Ross “What’s That Sucking Sound” Perot. I still remember listening to those debates on the car radio. For you Canadian readers, that would have been during the dynasty of Jean Chrétien. For my readers in England, that would have been during the reign of Queen Elisabeth II.
Maybe the hill run deprived my brain of too much oxygen, but it struck me as funny that whenever any news story that starts “A 47-year-old man…”, odds are that the story is going to be a problem for that individual. It will, no doubt, be a story of some type of deception, perversion or debauchery involving individuals much younger or older than himself. Alternatively, this 47 Year old man was involved in some random act of violence. Usually this individual is unnamed by the police pending the outcome of an investigation or a notification of next of kin. Long story short, 47-year-old men should avoid news worthy situations.
If you think I am kidding, click here to see what Google News returns
If a 47-year-old man were to win the lottery, the story would start, “John Smith, 47 from Petaluma…” No name means bad news.
Comment: So when you clicked on the Google News link, what story caught your eye? Was I right? So, what should I write for my 100th blog post?
Bound to Cover Just a Little More Ground 