Question:
I was let go from my job as a morning radio announcer in May of '06. I had done a morning radio show here in Chattanooga for 26 years, and there was always one thing that kept me feeling young. The guy in the booth next to me at the Adult Contemporary station was/is turns 85 this year. He actually announced to the city that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. That, I thought was OLD!!! Because the station I was on was a 100,000 watt station and the oldest in the market of 12 FM's, we were the Emergency Broadcasting Station. I announced the 9-11 tragedy before the TV networks did, and all other stations were forced to tune to us. It was surreal as I began to think of people saying one day, "God he must be ancient. He announced to the city the planes flying into the World Trade Center." What's your opinions???
Answer:
I think all old people remember their childhoods. But I don't think they still live in the memories like we all seem to do. My parents were always just so....mature. So boring, almost. They didn't question things, didn't feel like they were "entitled" the way we do. At least I never got that feeling.
Even my sister and brother, who are like 20 years older than me, don't have the same refusal to grow up or old as I do. My sister thinks I should cut my hair and get a permanent in it like she and my mother had. I'm not about to. I won't be 80 with long hair, but I won't be 50 with an old lady bob, either...
And we have the Beatles. If I go to the grocery store here at 2am, I get to meander down the isles and sing Beatle songs and Sonny and Cher. (Occasionally Daydream Believer pops on, too!)
So many of us are single. That may have something to do with it. I've got a whole slew of friends that are either divorced with grown children, divorced with NO children, or never married. I might have become more mature and less selfish if I'd had kids...but never wanted them.
I want to retire in one of these fancy retirement golf course communities or in an oceanfront condo, and go to the grocery store to sing Monkees and Beatles songs when I get older. Screw being mature!
