A fact of life is, every year you age a little whether you want to or not.  I don’t feel any different and each year when asked I seem to forget my actual age.  I may add or deduct a year and then try to calculate my exact age.  This month I will turn 49 years YOUNG but it just seems like yesterday when I was snot nosed kid. 

I believe there are two times in your life when your birthday really means something, the first would be when you turn 16, and the second would be you turn 21.  16 is a milestone! That’s when you are able to get a drivers license.  I remember being 5 or so and spending my summer vacations in South Carolina where my Uncle George would let me stand in the seat and drive his 56 Chevy.  Then he would take my cousin Betsy and I to the cement factory where he worked so we could drive the old golf cart.   What a thrill it was to be driving as a young kid and I looked forward to going back each summer just so I could drive.

Due to my vast driving experience with Uncle George, I would harass every adult I could to let me drive. No go… only Uncle George would grant me this pleasure.  I loved going to ride in the car, anybody’s car, it gave me freedom to get away from just sitting around, it gave me the opportunity to explore new places, it gave me independence!

I could not wait until it would be my turn to legally drive so on the day that I was 15-1/2, I made my mom take me to get my learners permit. We had an “Old Book” lying around the house that I had been studying –AND I WAS READY!  I flunked the test and then had to wait two weeks to take it again.  Of course I blamed my failure on the “Old Book” so I picked up a current book, studied hard, and passed the test on the second try.

FINALLY my 16^th birthday!  I made my mom take me down to the DMV first thing in the morning to get my DRIVERS LICENSE.  Walking out of the DMV with my driver’s license, I really thought I was the bomb, and to this day, I still love cars and going to ride (driving). 

When I turned 21, I thought it was another huge milestone; I was now legal to go into the Casinos.  Growing up in Las Vegas being able to go into the “Forbidden Casino’s” was a big deal. After a couple of times of hanging out with the Casino crowd I decided this was not as big of a deal as turning16. Gaining your independence was far better then being able to gamble.

What I do remember is this; when I was 5, 12 seemed old.  Then when I turned 12, 18 seemed old. At 18, I thought I knew everything but looking at most 18-year-old kids today, they know nothing.  At that time when I would see someone who was 24 I thought “they are old” and 30… well, that is over the hill!   Then I turned 30 and it was no big deal and those older people, those 40 somethings, well they’re old.   Each year, just seems to be the same. I am now going to be 49, and 60, well that does not seem to be so old to me anymore, but 90, that is another story.  

But wait a minute…I remember the story of my grandmother breaking her hip when she and my Aunt Beth were flipping their mattresses.  What was she thinking!! She was 101 at the time.  I look back at photos of my parents when at the time I thought they were old, but calculate their age and realize I am older now than they were in the photos. 

Age is just a state of mind and my mind tells me I am not old, my body, well it tells me something different.  They say, 40 is the new 30 and 50 is the new 40, so I guess I am going to be 40 next year, not 50.   My grandmother Bradley lived until she was 103; her sister was 100 years young when she passed on.   I also have an uncle and an aunt in their 90’s and when you look at the palm of my hand, my lifeline is very very long.  I used to compare it to my grandmothers to see what hers was like and mine was actually longer.