“The clock is ticking”

It’s been a while since I’ve last posted to this blog. Almost a year. An awful lot can happen in the course of 12 months. A lot can happen in a year’s time. I’ve seen people I care about leave. I’ve changed jobs. I’ve moved. I started building websites. I attended my 35^th high school reunion. I’ve experienced the joy of becoming a grandparent. And yesterday, my birthday, I turned 54.

Fifty-four years. Six hundred forty-eight months. Nineteen thousand, seven hundred ten days. You get the idea.

Eisenhower. Kennedy. Johnson. Nixon. Ford. Carter. Reagan. Bush. Clinton. Bush. Obama. Eleven presidents, though I have be honest and concede that I have no actual memory of the first one on this list. My presidential memories pick up with the second.

So, I’m sitting at my newest favorite spot, Crave Café, on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, Calif. I’m devouring my protein omelete (eggs, chicken, sun-dried tomatoes and Swiss cheese) and I’m noticing how many young people are there hanging out. Laptops booted up and aglow. Some of the youngsters are sitting there, sharing music through the earbuds of their iPods. I see a young couple, sharing what looks to be a cool juice-type drink and listening to music on an iPod. The guy has one of the earbuds in an ear and the girl has the other in one of hers.

Cute.

So -- midbite -- watching the couple giggling and enjoying each other’s company, my mind goes back to when Annette Handley and I used to go to the record department at Sears in downtown Gary, get into a “preview” booth with a couple of 45 records and spin the vinyl while sneaking a few hugs and kisses behind the drawn curtains.

Cute.

I haven’t seen any preview booths like that lately and I haven’t seen a vinyl 45 in years. Time flies.

I don’t mind so much being one of the “older guys” in the office who remember when knowing the Dewey Decimal System was key to looking for books in the library … especially when it was time to do a term paper.

I don’t mind being able to remember a time before everything became digital … when Annette Handley and I used to get some “alone time” in one of the record booths at Sears in downtown, Gary, Ind., back when you could preview a 45 record before you purchased it.

When going outside to play was the adventure to beat all adventures on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

When there was no need for a “play date.”

When there were a handful of major TV networks: NBC, CBS, ABC. … Or whenever there was a black person on TV, how we’d all gather and watch … in awe.

When you could practically fill you car with gasoline – from “e” – for less than five or 10 dollars.

When the thought of a student with a loaded pistol on school grounds was simply unheard of.

When a pair of sneakers didn’t cost $200.

When folks in the neighborhood knew their neighbors and you didn’t DARE do anything out of line, because somebody would see you doing it and by the time you got home, you’d be in big trouble.

Times were simpler, and, in some respects … better.

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t intend to be one of those old “geezers” who goes on about how good things were “back when” and how “messed up” things are now. I’m totally cool with the technology that pervades society. I find it exciting. I only WISH I had access “back when.” I like e-mail (I’ve got four accounts that I use.) I love my iPhone. There’s AT&T U-Verse at my apartment.

I’m on Facebook. I tweet (though not too much, I have to concede). Oh, and I’ve got my eye on an iPad.

So don’t get it twisted. I’m not a technophobe… though I do know quite a few of them. And, surprisingly, a lot of them are my age … with children who are into the technology groove. So, you’d think that these self-describe holdouts would embrace a means to stay in contact with their kids, the majority of whom have left the nest.

My grandson KeyVaughn, who was born in September, will – hopefully – reflect on his HIS 54^th birthday. Maybe he’ll reflect on some of the things that I will have told him about growing up “back in the day” by then.

It’s funny the things you remember as you get older.

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