Recently, I was watching the video of Brad Paisley’s new song, Old Alabama. I like Brad Paisley, but I’m a huge Alabama fan. I ran a successful Alabama website for a number of years beginning in 1994, and it’s common for me to sing My Home’s in Alabama, The Cheap Seats, and Hollywood: to my one year old to get him to sleep (mixing in more common lullabies such as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.)

What really caught me off guard was the title Old Alabama. Then I realized that My Home’s In Alabama hit the charts in 1980 31 years ago. I’ve always considered The Cheap Seats (a baseball themed song) to be a newer Alabama song, but even this song will turn 18 years old this year.

It’s not just Alabama, either. I follow a lot of older musicians or groups, including Bob Dylan, The Eagles, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Buffet, and The Beatles.

I read a lot of fiction, and I’m beginning to see some of my authors die. OK. Stieg Larsson and John D. MacDonald were dead before I started reading their stuff, so you can’t blame me. But then came Ed McBain (a/k/a Evan Hunter) and Michael Crichton. Many other writers I follow are at an age where they qualify for discounts at restaurants.

In June, I will mark 14 years of employment at the same company. (It’s a great company to work for, and I’d say this even if I didn’t think company spies were reading this site. Just for the record). It’s a conservative industry, and I support a system that is used by tens of thousands of users within the company and untold more outside corporate walls. Very much a grown-up career.

So I’m getting old, right?

 

But on the other hand there are a lot of youthful things in my life. I enjoy Phineas and Ferb when I get a chance to see it (Mom! Phineas and Ferb and making a title sequence! is my all-time favorite Candace line), and I don’t really mind watching Max and Ruby with the kids.

I have a t-shirt featuring Winnie The Pooh and another featuring a penguin covering his ears with the caption not listening. Several shirts in my collection are worn to elicit smiles from passers-by.

If you visit my grand office (er, grand cubicle), the first thing that will jump out at you are the animals. Lions, tigers, and bear oh my! Not to mention a kangaroo, squirrel, elephant, and of course, dinosaurs. My dinosaur wall calendar is yet another reminder of the fascination with the great creatures I have had since childhood.

High atop a cabinet is Snoopy piloting a life sized version of a Sopwith camel. (OK, maybe it’s a cheap plastic thing that was once filled with candy same difference).

The final paradox in my office? Bean bag versions of Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore contemplating the book Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos. I’ll get around to reading the book soon, but for now, I can amuse myself with the thought that the two friends are building up their knowledge of statistics.

So, what’s my point? No matter how old you are in chronological years, you’re as young as you think you are. That’s good news for me, as my stated goal is to live to be 105.

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Kosmo is the founder of The Soap Boxers and writes on a variety of topics. Many of his short stories have been collected into Kindle books.

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