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"duck and cover" drills that kept us safe from the dreaded Commies and watching the Ed's on TV, Murrow, Sullivan and Mister: One kept us safe from anti-Commie crazies, one kept us entertained, the third was a talking horse who made us laugh.

Then, suddenly and without warning, it is a few hundred lifetimes later.

Along the way, I skated through university, romped through four careers, blazed through a few wives and reveled in several other love affairs; some "others" were significant, some insignificant. Sometimes, my life was public and sometimes anonymous. I met people at high, middle and low levels of society; some were bright and interesting, some total duds, and it had nothing to do with where they were on the ladder. I went from being politically active to indifferent to cynical to angry before settling on active. Once a sort-of jock, my throbbing knees and truculent ankles remind me how much baseball and golf I used to play. I need glasses to read newspapers, in print and on-line.

Fortunately, the creep from kid to coot came slowly, starting about 15 years ago when I realized stewardesses were greeting me with a respectful "Hello, sir" instead of a flirtatious "Hi!" as I boarded a flight. It came as a jolt. I evolved over the years from weekend club crawls to weekends at friend's homes to weekends at home, reading. I pay less attention to Victoria's Secret commercials and more attention to ads assuring me that I can buy life insurance with no medical questions being asked.

And I learned along the way that the world no longer seems small and not just because it isn't. The more places I'd go around the globe, the bigger it became. The more people I met, the fewer I knew. The more things I saw, the less I understood. The more I read, the less I fathomed.

As I marked my 60th, I thought about all of this and remembered something a now long-dead, favorite aunt always told me on my birthday when I was a kid: "Too old too fast, too smart too slow." I finally understand what she meant.

Learn more about this author, Charley James.
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