April 6
If there’s anything that will focus your mind on aging, it’s living in a retirement community.
1965
I'm Telling You Now - Freddie and the Dreamers
Another day racked up for history! Mr. W checked notebooks and guess who's wasn't complete? Ah, well, the other subjects weren't so bad. I just don't seem to care right now. I guess I really need that vacation. I want to quit school sometimes, I want to give up. But I can't.
Comment 2006
There's the infamous Mr. W, again. He was shorter than I, with a raspy, screechy voice like Gilbert Gottfried's. He would eventually stop checking notebooks and go into real estate.
I may have seemed an unlikely candidate for high school dropout, but my 16th birthday was coming up in May. For some kids, that meant being old enough to drive, but for me it was the age at which school became optional. (At least theoretically.) Sophomore year really was bad enough (in my mind) that I used to daydream about dropping out. Oddly enough, I had no idea what I would do AFTER dropping out.
Oh, and Freddie and the Dreamers! Geeky-looking lead singer and lively, pop novelty songs. "Do the Freddie" was the "Macarena" of its day.
Loved this description from Lester Bangs, courtesy of Wikipedia:
"... Freddie and the Dreamers [had] no masterpiece but a plentitude of talentless idiocy and enough persistence to get four albums and one film soundtrack released ... the Dreamers looked as thuggish as Freddie looked dippy ... Freddie and the Dreamers represented a triumph of rock as cretinous swill, and as such should be not only respected, but given their place in history."
1985
Back again, after a brief trip to Louisville to give a paper. It was a rather silly trip. I was scheduled for 8:30 on a Saturday morning, played to audience of five. But it was a break, and it gave me a reason to pull together the Fauntleroy research; now to turn it into a publication! Time to get busy again, but - I hope - one last time for a while. Just five more weeks before the semester ends (whew!). This week C and J come to visit.
Last week I ardently but briefly desired a second child. Since then I am back to believing the life is sufficiently complicated right now. I’d rather have another kid than a dog.
2007 (Boston)
It’s so hard to find “think time” at this conference. The hotel desk is too high and faces a wall. Conference room seating has no writing surfaces, just chairs. Restaurants are noisy. I have had bits and pieces of thinking time and writing time, but not enough and really low quality. I look forward to the train ride tomorrow - eight hours of exactly what I need. A flat writing surface and a window.
2023
Today 1965 feels so far away. I am feeling every one of my almost 74 years, and just got a cortisone shot in my left hip so I can walk comfortably again. It could be worse, though. Last night I watched “Still Alice”, a film about a college professor with early onset Alzheimer’s, starring a luminescent Julianne Moore. Beautifully done, very sad. Reminded me of a friend who suffered the same cruel fate. So what’s a shot in the butt, compared to losing your self?
Tonight I think I will choose lighter fare.
2024
If there’s anything that will focus your mind on aging, it’s living in a retirement community. I love it, even (especially?) the reminders. My days are numbered. A healthy future is not guaranteed. The news informs me that the next total solar eclipse in our area will be when I am ninety-five. I doubt if there is a population more eager to see this year’s eclipse than my neighbors at Riderwood.
People around Victoria, B.C. call their region "heaven's waiting room." The average age can't be much less than 65 or 70.