When I’m sixty four!
Well! Today is march eighteenth and I’m sixty four!
In 1967 I was eighteen years old when the Beatles published “When I’m sixty four” on their Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Parts of it have remained with me throughout my life but it was never on my top of the list songs. To tell you the truth, I never thought that I would make it through to even the age of sixty, much less sixty four. I always thought that I would leave this earth at fifty nine. And, I almost did at fifty seven. The only thing that saved me from death was the grace of a very loving and forgiving God who specializes in second chances and beyond.
But, none-the-less, here I am at sixty four. The Beatles song reflects on what it would be like for two lifetime mates to still be together at sixty four. None of the real Beatles experienced that and the one who might have come closest to it was John Lennon with his Yoko Ono. We all remember John and how he died after trusting the city of New York too much as he was shot to death outside of his apartment building in the city. We remember John and how he and Yoko were enjoying the simple pleasures of making bread and other daily chores as celebrated in some of their songs together.
It is interesting that none of the Beatles made a lifetime marriage with anyone because I never managed that feat myself either. There was someone once that I could have seen myself doing those things with but life can be so cruel sometimes.
On a lighter note, what I might have thought that sixty four might have looked like in 1967 is nothing like what it really is today. Old people were old at sixty four in 1967! When I told my barber, a good judge of people as most hair care people learn to be, that I would be sixty four on this date, he simply said that he would have never guessed that to be a fact.
I like to look at the lady in the commercial for one of AARP’s products who says that she is just in her sixties and has a long life ahead and big plans. I hope she gets to fulfill those plans! I was told a few years ago that I would have a reduced life expectancy and not to make any long term plans. And then there is the story of my getting stopped at a railroad crossing and hearing a small voice inside of my head telling me to count the number of cars in the train that was beginning to cross ahead of me. When I finished the count the voice said that is how old you will live to be. There were 103 cars in that train. When one looks at sixty four compared to 103 there might be a ways to go. But I also remember waking up early just ten years ago today and thinking that I might be tired of it all. There was a reason for that which you will, God willing, read about in tomorrows ramblings piece.
And so, we look forward today to the calls from friends who will wish me well. And we will watch a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game from the state of Florida as they are in the midst of their spring training schedule in anticipation of another season in their one hundred and twenty one year history. If we are to go forward to 103 we cannot see that happening without the St. Louis Cardinals being a very big part of it. The year that the Beatles published their “64” song, the Cardinals were to appear in another World Series and we could think of nothing better than for that to happen again this year.
Hope springs eternal in the spring and it will be upon us day after tomorrow!
And so we wish everyone who reads this a very fine day this day after the green beer and the day before the twenty fifth anniversary of a marriage that lasted only thirteen years. There is the sweet and then there is the bittersweet and we take it all in stride as we meander along our way. And we thank a generous God for all he has done for us through the many years and what he may continue to do for us in the times to come.
And we thank the Beatles for giving us something special to write about on this birthday before we might, God willing, turn that magical age of sixty five!
IOVHO,
Regards,
Joe
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