Old Friends
Ten years ago today I turned sixty. I was devastated. I couldn't possibly be that old! Fifty was pretty much okay, that's "middle aged." But sixty! That ain't nuthin but OLD! So here I am today being seventy! The Simon & Garfunkel song "Old Friends" keeps running through my head, especially the line, "How terribly strange to be seventy." Fifty-five years ago, when the Bookends album came out, the old friend I imagined sitting with me on that park bench was Michael B, my best friend from Boy Scouts, but he died twenty-five years ago. After that it was Eddie C, my co-worker/boss/lunch companion from 1989 to 2005, but I have moved eight times to five different states since 2005. We haven't lost touch completely, but the chances of our ever being on the same park bench are slim to none. The only old men I hang out with these days are in our neighborhood, where we have lived for less than two years, and the only time I see them is when I wa...