Kathryn Ross column: Passing lessons to the next generation as another birthday arrives
I just celebrated a momentous birthday Tuesday. When I was a crass young thing, I thought people who reached the age I am now were old. They were too old and with one foot on the “Stairway to Heaven.”
I don’t think that now. What do they say, 50 is the new 40, 60 is the new 50 and 70 is the new 60? I hope so.
I had a really raucous birthday. You might think, balloons and ice cream, music and dinner. I celebrated by taking a nap and watching two old movies – John Wayne’s “Rio Bravo” and Jaqueline Bissett and Candice Bergen in “Rich and Famous.”
I’d already had plenty of balloons of the hot air type, since I covered three out of the four launches of the Great Wellsville Balloon Rally. Those balloons were good enough for me. I was still on duty, so to speak, gathering up stuff and putting it away for the Nathaniel Dike Museum on Monday from the display we had at the Main Street Festival, going out of town for an interview and then attending a village board meeting. I was still exhausted Tuesday. So, it was a treat to lay down on the couch, snooze and watch movies and forget about writing for the day.
A very dear friend provided me with a wonderful cheesecake, homemade, not from any kind of box, which served as my birthday cake, sans candles, thank God. Guess in my unsophisticated life I have never really had what you might call gourmet cheesecake. I couldn’t believe how light and creamy it was, with just the right amount of sweetness. It certainly didn’t need to have anything globbed on top of it. As I said, I’m unsophisticated. My homemade cheesecake comes out of a Jell-O box.
I just want to use this opportunity to say thank you to my friend who took the time out of her busy day to spend hours baking on a hot day – for me. Thank you for being so gracious and dear.
Today there is sort of a misnomer about older people, that we are crotchety know-it-alls that are always reminiscing about how good we had it growing up compared to today.
Well, we did have it good. We still have the best music — the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Three Dog Night, and all the others. Can you ever forget the “Dawn of Destruction” sung by a growling voiced Barry McGuire, or “Blowing in the Wind” by Peter, Paul and Mary. “Take A Little Piece of My Heart” by Janis Joplin is still a turn the radio up, stop and listen song for me.
I have one friend who sings a mean rendition of “The House of the Rising Sun,” that is a treat to listen to when you can get her to sing it.
And we had the best cars. We drove cars for flash and speed, not practicality and gas mileage. Really, what compares to a muscle car or a Jag or a Mustang, Corvette, Camaro, or T-Bird? All you have to do is check out any Cruise Night to see the cars we drove. Can you imagine Cruise Nights in the future?
Every week, I dine with a group of people who are mostly older than I am. They are active and bright, involved and always traveling to great places like Mackinaw Island, Alaska, and Egypt. I have trouble keeping up with them. They certainly are making the best of their twilight years. I want to be like them when I grow up.
More from Kathryn Ross: It may be time to expand horizons at the Balloon Rally
Today, the world is turbulent and in trouble. Our air is getting harder to breathe. Our sun is getting hotter to sit under and our best water comes out of a bottle, not a spigot or river. My older generation has seen most of this before – the violence in the streets, the dirty water and the injustice and unrest. We did something about it. We marched in the streets, were beaten by cops and the military, gassed, shackled, and put in jail. But it was all for a purpose, not to pillage, kill or rage against those that weren’t like us. We got laws passed that put an end to the violence and cleaned up our rivers, streams and our air and protected others.
Those old laws have come undone, undermined, and disregarded and it is time for new laws, stronger laws to deal with today’s problems. My generation was inspired by a man from our parent’s generation, one who fought beside them and who was part of them. He told us, “The torch has been passed to a new generation.”
Today that torch is once again being passed to a new generation and as did John F. Kennedy we’re pleading, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
— Kathryn Ross writes a weekly column.
This article originally appeared on The Evening Tribune: Ross: Passing lessons to a new generation as another birthday arrives
