My dad turns 65
My old man celebrated his 65th birthday today, so I stopped by my folks' house on my lunch to raid the fridge express my congratulations. Chocked full of anecdotes and always willing to share them, my father has always made for a fun conversationalist. To those who've told me I have the gift of gab, I'd have to say that I inherited it from him.
Today he remembered something he had done some forty-odd years ago. When he was a young sailor on night duty somewhere over the Atlantic, he pulled a small notebook from his pocket and wrote If I live to be 65 years old, the date will be March, 1 2006. I wonder what I'll be doing on that day?. I found this thought-provoking. Afterall, who hasn't stopped and wondered what they might be doing at some point in the future? It immediately brought to my mind the day in 1980 I proudly proclaimed to my bus driver that I would live to see the turn of the century. Then seven years old and awed at having seen the calendar turn from 1979 to 1980, I too had calculated how old I would be at some seemingly far-off point in the future.
When we crystal gaze like this, we tend to fancify things. When I envisioned the year 2000 as a seven-year-old, I'm sure I thought of jet packs and androids. Now as an expectant father I foresee my daughter being a master violinist or a state senator -- maybe even a violin playing senator riding around on a jet pack with an android. While serving in the military my father had considered emigrating to Australia. Maybe sitting in the engine room that night in the mid-1960s, he pictured himself at age 65 a retired admiral running with kangaroos or playing sea shanties on his didgeridoo. Whatever the vision we conjure up, it's almost always grandiose and flattering.
As for my dad's question as to what he'd be doing on this day , he said that now after all this time he finally knew the answer. "On March 1, 2006, " he said to me, "I'll be walking my dog."
Today he remembered something he had done some forty-odd years ago. When he was a young sailor on night duty somewhere over the Atlantic, he pulled a small notebook from his pocket and wrote If I live to be 65 years old, the date will be March, 1 2006. I wonder what I'll be doing on that day?. I found this thought-provoking. Afterall, who hasn't stopped and wondered what they might be doing at some point in the future? It immediately brought to my mind the day in 1980 I proudly proclaimed to my bus driver that I would live to see the turn of the century. Then seven years old and awed at having seen the calendar turn from 1979 to 1980, I too had calculated how old I would be at some seemingly far-off point in the future.
When we crystal gaze like this, we tend to fancify things. When I envisioned the year 2000 as a seven-year-old, I'm sure I thought of jet packs and androids. Now as an expectant father I foresee my daughter being a master violinist or a state senator -- maybe even a violin playing senator riding around on a jet pack with an android. While serving in the military my father had considered emigrating to Australia. Maybe sitting in the engine room that night in the mid-1960s, he pictured himself at age 65 a retired admiral running with kangaroos or playing sea shanties on his didgeridoo. Whatever the vision we conjure up, it's almost always grandiose and flattering.
As for my dad's question as to what he'd be doing on this day , he said that now after all this time he finally knew the answer. "On March 1, 2006, " he said to me, "I'll be walking my dog."
posted by kevin black at
4:24 PM
4 Comments:
If your father had emigrated to Australia, perhaps you -- like Mel Gibson -- would have ended up back in the states as a world-famous film-star. Nice post. My father died when I was only 22. Still miss him.
If his old man had emigrated to Australia he would never have been born.I do not know how the world would have survived,but on second thought maybe they would have
Happy Birthday to Kevin's Dad!!!
You know, when I was little I had a sunday school teacher tell me that the world was going to end in the year 2000....I think she was trying to save my soul or something...it scared the crap out of me for a few minutes. I remember being about 7 when she said that. I sat thoughtfully for a few minutes to calculate how old I would be in 2000. I realized I would be in my late 30's. I remember clearly relaxing because I knew I was gonna be really old and it wouldn't matter if I died then anyway...
My oldest friend and I still reminisce about how in sixth grade we calculated that we'd be (eek) 32 in the year 2000 and how we hoped we'd still be great friends then, visiting each other with our kids and our husbands in tow. We never guessed that she'd be a single lesbian mom of twins and that I'd be living in sin with my baby daddy. Well, at least we got the friends and the kids part right!
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