My Number:Part Deux

Grow Wise..Not Up

Klugertown is intended to be musings by a boomer..me! But boomers don’t have to buy into the myth of getting older. The boomer generation is considered 1946-1964. I can’t say I have much in common with those 5 years either way, though we find common ground.

My old blog has the motto: Pissing Off People Since 1953’ and nothing can be closer to the truth.

In high school and college, I knew 18-22 year-olds who acted 70 but I am also lucky to know 70-year-olds who act 18-22. Now, regarding my generation, we’re not necessarily skydiving, running with the bulls in Pamplona, or dropping acid (if you can even FIND Purple Owsley these days!) but once we buy into the myth, the jokes, the stereotypes, we might as well start making sure our wills are in place. Not because we shouldn’t make sure we provide for those we love or who stay after we leave but we see no joy in the future or awe readily accept what we are told to expect. We have given up.

Earlier this week, I wrote about the ‘number ‘when we sign out. But it should be like randomly sticking a pin in a map. Wherever you go, there you are!

I have never been a fan, at the milestones at 40,50, 60 or soon to be 70, of those ridiculous and demeaning cards they make with jokes about diapers, creaky backs, lack of sex (I’m doing fine, thank you!), sagging boobs, non-functioning appendages, forgetfulness or accepting things that our parents accepted.

I don’t know about you but at 69, Lenny Kluger was playing tennis three times a week. I’m drinking vodka and smoking cigars three times a week, but the sentiment is the same. Sure, he wore his pants to his waist but he was alive until dialysis became part of his life. It wasn’t age, it was a surgery mishap.

A good friend encouraged me to elaborate on my earlier column. We spoke today and while discussing the importance of that column, we started to get agitated about what some people accept as their fate.

I have been fortunate to have a career that with its sexiness, did not happen because I was lucky. I did not know people to get me a gig but I also didn’t accept that some jobs were outside of my reach. My first radio job was, unpaid, at WBAB, LI. I had quit college for a year and heard that hero cop Frank Serpico was returning from exile in Holland, to endorse Ramsey Clark for the Senate from NY. I called the station and asked if they knew anything about it.  They did not but said if I got an interview, they’d run it. I went to NYC and got an interview with Frank Serpico. They aired it. I had chutzpah.

I have never accepted a role or fate. I never accepted what was expected. Sure, my parents were supportive but they never really understood what I did. My mother told me, that in 1985, a woman at her pool in Boca said; “Do you have children?” My mom said: “I have one son who is a BIG BIG lawyer in Miami. My other son works at some farkakteh MTV.!” “MTV?!!!” the woman exclaimed, excitedly.

They were indeed proud but when I talked about moving into the internet, they didn’t quite understand why someone would leave a great job for the ‘unknown. ‘It was a different generation, one I respected but one that was no longer relevant. At least not to me.

The topic of this column is acknowledging aging, but maybe not accepting it gracefully. I am fortunate my health is fine but my life has not been without sorrow and challenges.  We all have lived through loss. Mine is no greater than anyone else’s. If a loss impacts us in huge ways, it’s a huge loss. There’s no gauge, no scale, no chart.

But life does not have to be like the end of ‘Godfather III’, the crappy one, where Michael dies old, lost, and no reason to live.

My column earlier this week was about joy. And seeking our own path that cements who we are and as we get older, not lamenting, but embracing our tomorrows and wherever they take us.

Life is not fair. Whoever said it was? But it doesn’t have to be a bitter response.

As I noted, Klugertown is attitude. It’s mine, not yours. Maybe it IS yours. Figure out what works for you.

I am reminded of Doc Holliday’s words to Wyatt Earp in ‘Tombstone.’ Wyatt says: “Doc. All I ever wanted is a normal life.” Doc replied: “Wyatt; there’s no such thing as normal. There’s just life.”

Or better yet, Doc Brown to Marty McFly on our future: ““Marty: Your future hasn’t been written yet. No ones has. Your Future is whatever you make it. So, make it a good one.”

Yeah, that works, Doc. Whatever future we have, let’s make it a good one.