Side Roads: Birthday’s no milestone, just a reminder

I'm so old, I remember when men cursed and women cried, instead of the other way around.

That thought occurs to me as I contemplate yet another birthday in a few days. This one's not like last year's, though, which was one of those milestone birthdays, the kind that ends in a zero.

I can't say it really bothered me, but it did make me think. I mathematically calculated how many grains of sand were left in the hourglass, which were, well, not all that many or none, depending on things like disease and disasters and time already served.

When I was through contemplating, I realized there were still some things I wanted to do. I used to think that when I was older I wanted to travel, or maybe just kick back and do as I pleased each day. Now that I am older, I realize what I really want to do is not just to consume, but to create, to accomplish.

There was a practical side to all that thinking. Eyeing the hourglass again, I said to myself, "Well, whatever it is you're going to do, you'd better do it now."

After a hiatus of many, many years, I once again have a desire to write poetry. It burns at my fingertips, like little sparkles of fairy dust that at any moment will turn into brilliant colors that flow onto the page and into words. (I think I've watched too many Disney shows.)

Then I turn around to the tasks at hand, and all the while I can hear the echo of my own words saying, "Do it now." Instead, before I know it, I'm contemplating my age again.

I'm so old, I know what a bobby pin is. Women used to use them to secure their hair in place, or to make their hair curly. I can remember my mother rolling sections of my hair into little corkscrews, then pinning each one into place by crossing two bobby pins over them. In the morning, the pins would come out and my hair would be, not curly-curly, but more wavy and bouncy, since my hair was thick. Sometimes, she would give me a home permanent, a Tonette. (Women and big girls got Toni home perms, or maybe Lilt.)

Any of you young ladies out there ever had a Tonette, or curls produced by bobby pins? Uh-huh, that's what I thought.

Don't feel bad, though. I never got to have a punked-up red mohawk and 12 piercings in my face. You kids today get all the fun things.

That's another thing that reminds me that I'm old, getting to say, "you kids today ..." Actually, that one's kind of fun. I can gripe and complain and pick at everything I don't like, and people just think, "Oh, well, she's getting on in years, you know."

Let me tell you, I had this same personality when I was 10, and it works much better with a little age on it.

Another thing is that I get to give advice, wanted or unwanted, so here it is.

Don't wait another minute to live.

Do it now.

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Persinger is community editor for The Tribune. She may be reached at (812) 523-7063 or jpersinger@ tribtown.com.