For Those About to Rock...
I feared getting old when I was a young boy. Reading the newspaper, napping and cutting grass was not what I looked forward to doing, then there was the dread of croaking. I said I’d never grow up and I believe, so far, I’ve been pretty successful
I have always been an imaginative soul, never bored and always had something to occupy my mind. Whether it be fishing, hunting, exploring, music, surfing and the list goes on (yes, I live in the foothills of the Appalacians and I’ve owned three different surfboards) I have always had fun or knew what I needed to have fun. As a teenager I took a left turn and turned to alcohol on many occasions to have fun which eventually caught up to me about 12 years ago with a not so fun period of my life. Hey, I like hotdogs and orange koolaid but I’d rather partake in said meal at my house…not the big house.
So, now I’m almost 50. I’m getting old and the fear I had about aging was to much surprise...a hoax. My imagination is still there but my interests are not as broad. I only kayak fish and I’m still a music junkie. I’m 49 and still love rock music as loud as my car stereo will go and I fish a lot. I work a part time 60 hour a week job at the local paper mill that pays the bills and a full time job with no pay…fishing. I don’t read the news paper and I pay the kid next door to cut the grass.
When you hear that getting old is a bad thing, I call bull$##t. I have more fun now than I ever had in my teens or twenties and my recipe is a combination of that imagination, passion, some how keeping a working amount of that childhood innocence and an overly patient wife, which I am blessed to have.
We only have so many heartbeats in the old ticker and my plan is to be doing what I love and not what I loathe when that last one finishes.
For those approaching the golden age... Prepare to rock. Peace and thank God for little plastic boats.
