EIGHTY AND GOING STRONG..........For being eighty

Birthdays.......................never really paid to much attention to them since I was 21, but at the time I hit the "over the hill" mark of 50 they had once again become a relevant marker of time. Started to see more and more proof of this once I came onto social media.  Now, growing up birthday's were one of my three favorite days of the year.  Christmas was number one, birthdays and then the last day of the school year.  Christmas and birthdays primarily because it meant .................a lot of presents.  The last day of school meant .....a two month vacation.  I longed for the age of thirteen just because it sounded like a new era for me........being a teenager, rather than just a kid.  Sixteen meant............I could now drive ........alone.  Eighteen meant ..............working or college and 21 meant drinking.  After that I seem, along with many others, to forget about birthdays and they just meant another day for a card attached to a shirt, tie or some other piece of clothing, primarily from your parents. The celebration part seemed to take a vacation   Twenty-nine years later the ugly number of 50 came into being............"over the hill 50" "downhill 50" "better do it now while you still can 50".

Social media seems to have brought back some glimmer of birthdays but only for the years I previously mentioned.  Very little is said about birthdays from 21-50.  Now, I do remember by 50th, 60th,70th and especially my 80th birthdays, that being only 4 birthdays in 40 years. Is there a meaning for this...................I don't know, why ask me?
I do remember my 50th, simply because I had begun talking about "silk sheets" and how that would put spark back into................you know what.   My prays were answered. Someone actually gave me BLACK, SILK SHEETS for a gift.  Now what??
At 60 I was now two years into retirement, people were beginning to talk about, how, after retirement if I had nothing to do, or no job to go to, I would die.
At 70 a grand celebration was made in Malmo, Sweden. It was right after a road trip around Europe and before returning home. People came from Stockholm, Copenhagen to help in this passage.
Most of all my 80th will always be remembered. Margot told me that Swedish custom was to have the person celebrating   this day pay for taking everyone out to celebrate .  I did just that, I called a family meeting to find out where everyone wanted to go for dinner.  We all ended up in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for a week long party.  It was well worth it, My entire family with me for this time. Now you have to see the video.

See you all at NINETY,  when I will run with the bulls, or from the bulls or whatever.

(come back soon)