“I heard you used to drive out to Las Vegas in college. Did you ever go to the Bellagio and hear the fountain with that Phantom of Opera song?”
The gentleman who asked me is significantly younger and looking for a place to take his girlfriend.
“You’re talking about the Bellagio and it wasn’t built until many years after I graduated. I remember it playing a Phantom Of The opera song. I am not sure you’re going to get All I Ask Of You there. What I remember is Time To Say Goodbye with Bocelli and Brightman.
Though I haven’t been to Vegas in at least a decade so I am not necessarily a fount of current information. But I am certain you won’t lack for choices in great meals and shows.”
The conversation moves on and I tell him some people say my Airpods Pro might not be working correctly because I sound muffled.
“I am going to go to settings, click forget device and pair them again and see if that fixes the problem.”
He laughs and says “you know more than my dad, he’d never get that far.”
“An old man crack huh. I am Gen X, we’re the bridge between the digital and analog worlds. I can change tires and the tubes in your television set.”
The comment about the tube went over his head but he does confess he hasn’t changed a tire but thinks he could figure it out.
“You don’t have any tools in your car huh?”
“No, why would I.”
Somewhere my father is shaking his head but I don’t mention that.
Age Is Relative
I am not surprised when he asks if I have tools in my car and nod my head.
“I carry some basic items with me. Not unusual for me to have a pocket knife on me either. Never know when you’ll need a hand. I like being prepared for things.”
That is met with a crack about old people so I push back with the classic, “age is relative. I don’t think of myself as old and there is probably nothing you do that ‘old people’ weren’t doing for 10,000 years before you.
Look up Virginia Hill’s testimony before congress. It is a bit salty and colorful. But it makes it clear that we’re not as new or novel in our approach to basic parts of life as we might think.”
That leads to another moment in which I realize how large the age difference is. He has no idea who Virginia Hill was or Bugsy Siegel.
I heard stories from both of my grandfathers about gangsters, especially the Jewish ones when I was a boy.
My paternal grandfather was a first generation American. My great-grandparents were married in Europe before coming to the US.
My maternal grandfather was born in Canada but moved to the US as a young boy. His parents had come from Europe too.
So they grew up in parts of Chicago where there were heavy immigrant populations and some of those people took more colorful routes to try and make a buck. You don’t hear about many Jewish fighters now, but there were some big names when they were younger.
I knew about Benny Leonard and Barney Ross among others from a young age.
You don’t have to look very far back in my family history to find tailors, machinists and other professions where people work with their hands.
My parents generation and the ones that followed had more advantages overall. For most of us college wasn’t a hope, it was an expectation.
When you’re in your twenties it is easy to not recognize that twenty or thirty years might not be as much time as you think it is.
It is not insignificant, but it is not nearly as long as you might think.
The Second Half
My daughter has a wicked sense of humor and is a fabulous writer. She made a card in which she crossed out a line that said “I’ll always be your little girl” and replaced it with “financial burden.”
It came not long after a discussion about her college tuition and a list of items she needs to purchase for school.
Facebook shared the news of a younger friend who just became a father for the second time. I said “Mazal Tov” and remembered when the aforementioned daughter was born almost 20 years ago.
It is not hard to remember what it was like to have an infant in the house or multiple young children. It is not that far away but it is not yesterday either.
And it occurred to me I really am entering that time people refer to as the second half of life.
If you read this consistently you know it is not the first time I have thought about this but it is sinking in a little deeper.
Not unlike many other summers the house is empty, it is just me so that provides more time to think.
More time to recognize that I might only get another 20 or 25 summers. I plan and expect to have more than that, but life happens so I have to be realistic.
Can’t put all my eggs into one basket. Can’t just pass through the days with no ideas, thoughts or dreams of the future because life can sneak up on you.
One day you’re talking to someone about a trip to Las Vegas with a woman you think you might marry and the next you’re looking at your portfolio and wondering when you might be able to retire.
