On the 12th of December I will
officially be finished with my 50’s decade. That’s right; I am turning 60 years
old on that day. A good friend of mine told me on the occasion of my 50th
birthday that the good news about turning 50 is that I hadn’t died in my 40’s.
Ditto for turning 60, I guess.
Another
good quote that I have heard about the aging process has been attributed to
many different sources but when I heard the quote for the first time it was from
the famous baseball pitcher, Leroy “Satchel” Paige who, at the young age of 59 years
pitched four innings for Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Athletics in 1965,
said, “How old would
you be if you didn’t know how old you were? Age is a question of mind over
matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.” I like how you think Satch!
The date on your birth
certificate is only one factor in determining age. Yes, one’s age number is the
recorded time you have been on Earth since your birth but many other elements
come in to play when determining age; the most important of which would be
genetics.
I only have to look at
the differences in ageing between my Dad and my Mom to see the hard evidence of
that. Dad had a long history of heart ailments and passed away at the
relatively young age of 72. To me, Dad looked closer to 90 years old than to 70
when he passed. Mom, on the other hand, always looked a decade younger than her
age, just like her mom, and she still referred to her age-peers as “old fogies”
right up until her death at 91 years old. I’m hoping that the majority of my
genetics come from my mother’s side for obvious reasons. Time will tell.
I wasn’t the only one
born in 1956 so I’ll give you a list of some notable people who share their
birth year with me. Actors Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, Andy Garcia and Maureen
McCormick, (Marcia, Marcia, Marcia from the Brady Bunch for those of you who
weren’t a teenage boy in 1970). Sports stars Joe Montana, Larry Bird, Martina
Navratilova, Sugar Ray Leonard and Bjorn Borg were also born in’56, just to
name a few.
1956 was also the year
of the Hungarian Revolution which was a revolt against
the government of the Hungarian People's Republic and its Soviet-imposed policies. Over
2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet troops were killed in the conflict, and 200,000
Hungarians fled as refugees. These events greatly affected a number of people
of Hungarian heritage in Canada
Other notable events from 1956 were:
Elvis Presley’s first pop single “Heartbreak Hotel” was released, Rocky
Marciano, the heavyweight boxing champion retired undefeated at 49-0, IBM
releases the first computer with a hard drive, the board game Yahtzee first
came out, Certs, the first breath mint candies hit the market and stats showed
that 80% of American homes had refrigerators by 1956. 80%?...wow.
The average price of a home was $22,000.00;
the average income was $4,400/year; a new car would set you back about
$2,000.00; gas sold for .22 cents a gallon; bread was .18 cents a loaf and a
postage stamp cost .03 cents; coffee was .69 cents a pound, chuck roast was .33
cents a pound and a six pack of beer cost $1.20. Hmmmm.
My philosophy is to enjoy every day
one is given in life and my age crises came and went a long time ago. The most
important day is the one you are living. 60 is 60 and like Satchel says, if you
don’t mind, it don’t matter. I am grateful for another day, another week,
another month, another year or another decade, and, God willing, there will be other
significant birthdays to celebrate for me down the road.
“Live your life
and forget your age.”-Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993).
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