Yesterday

I retired when I was 43. Oh, to be so young again!

I have noticed a few things about time. For instance, the older you get, the faster it goes - but you often don't remember it. And I figured out why it seems to go faster. It's psychological, and relational. When you are 5 years old, a year represents a whopping 20% of your entire life. At 50, it only represent 2% of your life.

When I was 30, a 20 year-old gal was smitten with me. But I told her it could never work. She was only 2/3 my age. I told her in 10 years, she would be 30, and I would be 40 - she would be 3/4 my age. She'd be catching up. In another 10 years she would be 4/5 my age - her at 40, and me 50. At that rate, she would someday pass me, and I didn't want to be married to a woman so much older than me.

At 6, I had all the questions. At 16, I thought I had all the answers. At 26, I realized how smart my father had suddenly gotten.

As I get older, I get increasingly random memories of little pieces of my younger days. Out of the blue, a smell might trigger a memory of something that happened when I was 5. A song will remind me of a specific moment at the Community Center Dance when I was 15. And I wonder if such an increase in reminiscense is a precursor of that thing they call the "second childhood". But I don't think so, 'cuz I never left my first.

I look lovingly at that 1947 Chevy, as it is the first car I remember my Dad owning. As I fawn over it, I hear some young fellow say, "Man, that car is OLD", and suddenly I am faced with the reality that all these sweet memories mean that I, too, am getting long in the tooth.

A youngster today might know that a "Les Paul" is a Guitar. But I remember when the real Les Paul sang "Vaya Con Dios" with Mary Ford.

A young person might know George Burns as the old man who played GOD in the movies. I remember when George Burns was a young comic, on stage with his young wife, Gracie Allen. And I recall a time when good comics like Bob Hope, Red Skelton and Jackie Gleason could get uproarious laughter without resorting to the use of profanity. And when the stars of Hollywood had class, and were worthy role models - Jimmy Stewart, Cagney, Bogie & McCall, Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Jack Lemmon...

Today is fine. But yesterday has a sweetness to it that is not unlike the heavenly smell that draws you in as you try to walk by an old-fashioned bakery.

But there lies danger in yesterday, as well. For those souls who try to return, or remain there will find their lives are slipping by without notice, as each new today falls victim to memories of yesterday. We all know who I mean - the guy who looks like an over-the-hill Fonzie and can't talk about anything except the past. He lives there. And it is sad.

Most of us have a healthy longing for times past, and we visit from time to time. At cruises, we relish the old, and play all the old tunes. And if the arthritis isn't too bad today, we might even try shaking a leg to the jitterbug. But when the cruise is over, we rub in the Ben Gay, and we are back in the here and now, with an optimistic eye on the future. For most of us know that yesterday is only a sweetener for our todays and tomorrows. Rather than live in the memories, we desire to create more memories that we can relish tomorrow. Like the new memories I made at Ken's birthday today, and at Hodgman's with some my-t-fine folks.

And while I wrote this, tomorrow arrived! G'Night.