Mind Games That Help You Feel Your Age
Don’t Try These If You’re Over 50
When I was a little tyke of eight, a TV program debuted called Life Begins at Eighty (which it doesn’t, except for a giant tortoise). It was a panel discussion series in which viewers at home wrote questions for the octogenarian panel to answer.
I remember watching the show though I can’t imagine why an eight-year-old would watch a show featuring octogenarians. But what bakes my noodle now is that a panelist on that show in 1950 would have been born in 1870!
When the President of the United States was Ulysses S. Grant.
When the British monarch was Queen Victoria.
When Tchaikovsky was composing symphonies.
This is one of several mind games you can play to help you “feel” your age. If I continued to play, I’d realize that:
Someone who was 95 years old when I was born might have fought in the Civil War.
Someone who was 74 years old when I was born might have watched the Gunfight at the OK Corral.
Someone who was 54 years old when I was born might have watched the Wright Brothers’ first flight.
Someone who was 44 years old when I was born might have fought in WWI.
Obviously, the game becomes more depressing the older you get. A variation is the “When I was born” game.
When I was born, the Allies were still at war with Japan, Franklin Roosevelt was president, Joe Biden was two years old, only a few thousand American homes had TV sets, and talking motion pictures were only 20 years old.
I can feel myself crumbling like an unwrapped mummy. But let’s go on, with the “OMG I Was Alive When” game.
Fifty years ago Martin Luther King was assassinated. MLK spoke at my college graduation in 1965! Sixty-one years ago JFK was assassinated. I’d taken the day off from high school to watch him sworn in. Queen Elizabeth died after reigning for 70 years. I was eight years old when she was crowned!
At this point, I am on the floor in a fetal position. To cheer myself up I can play a happier game called “I Saw.”
In 1958, while in Washington DC, I saw Charles DeGaulle and President Eisenhower wave from an open touring car during a parade.
In 1968, I saw the Trooping of the Colors in London with Elizabeth II, resplendent in scarlet uniform, astride her horse, and the royal kids in a coach (Charles had just turned 20).
In 1969 I watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on TV — live.
In 1971, I got to see Leopold Stokowski conduct a concert.
Of course, you young’uns will fail to see why these events were meaningful but if you play the game, substitute historical or cultural events you witnessed more years ago than you remember.
So, yes, I will be an octogenarian in a few months — when life begins, according to the old TV show. Physically I’m hanging in. I have my original shoulders, hips, and knees. I can eat solid food. I can dress myself (putting on socks is a challenge, though). I can no longer juggle. Then again, I could never juggle.
It’s hard to wrap my head around. Yes, 80 is just a number. A very, very high number. Forty would be a better number.
Playing these “Your Age” head games at my age does engender a feeling of awe. Then it engenders a feeling of “Time to review my will.”
