Hats Off! Musings of being a Pirate
January, 2002
By Wyatt Newman
Hats Off! The Musings of Being a Pirate
January, 2002
*** Final Edition ***
By Wyatt Newman
'60 Becomes Sixty
OK, fellow Pirates, here it is, 2002, and it's time that the number
sixty is another milestone in our lives. Unless you were one of those
early entries into the academic blooming years, this is when we hit
age 60. Look at it this way, if it eases the worry: this is
technically the last year of being in the fifties.
As a generation, where do we really belong? We aren't War Babies by
historical definition. Those were kids conceived and born during the
War, sometimes known as "Goodbye Babies," as fathers went
off to war and wanted to make sure some part of them might be around
and the wives would stay loyal in their absence. So unless you were
born in October, November or December, 1942, you really aren't a War
Baby.
We aren't part of the Boomer generation, those being born in the years
1946-64. No, we're just a lost generation or an in-between generation,
sort of a sliding out of the Depression and slipping into the War,
merely lost babes in the wilderness of time.
What's happened since 1960? Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, King
assassination, man on the Moon, Watergate, social upheaval, women's
movement, race riots, Beatles, drug war, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton,
living under Boomer domination and of course, 9/11.
More personally, college, military, marriage, kids, divorces,
grandparenting, different addresses, deaths, illnesses, problems of
aging, various jobs, various successes, various failures. Some are no
longer with us, although the departed are fewer than one might expect.
Have we changed since 1960? Physically, of course, some more than
others. With all that can happen in forty two years, there's bound to
be an impact causing change. Still, in each of us, there's undoubtedly
the same personal characteristics, whether it be shyness, a quick
willingness to smile, desire to help others or be involved,
quick-tempered, cautious, reckless, friendly or snobby.
Heck, we're not really so old. We're not in the "autumn of our
years," yet, as Frank Sinatra sang (Frankie not being of our
generation.) But in 2010, when we rally together again, age 68,
well....it's only three years past the official retirement year, after
all. So "lighten up," as those equally obnoxious Gen Xers
say, like, ya know?
September might be a good month to hold our reunion. There's a song
older
than all of us that goes:
| |
Oh, it's a long,
long time
from May to December.
But the days go short
when you reach September. |
Hope not. When the Class of '60 has its 60th in 2020, we'll be 78.
Not so bad, really...true seniors at last. The year Twenty-twenty.
Look forward to it. Try a more modern tune ..."I can see
clearly now...."
So long, and may the breeze be behind ye.
Wyatt
| |
Ed Note: '60 becomes sixty -- THAT's creative. Thank you,
Wyatt, for contributing
these kinds of creative passages in this column throughout the
past calendar year. |
|
-Ed Mauget (I said it
was an Ed Note) |
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