We Can Put a Man on the Moon

Can it really be FORTY years since the first moon landing??? I remember it as if it was almost yesterday. I was a mere child of 15, volunteering for the summer at a state institution for the mentally handicapped. This was about 50 miles from my home, so my fellow volunteers and I were housed in a dorm on the campus of a community college. One of the college students set up a TV with about a 15" screen in the common room and we all watched the historic event. Only 40 years since we've been able to say "We can put a man on the moon, but. . ."

The moon landing is just one of the historical events that I try not to let my elementary students know that I've witnessed first hand. Not that they would be able to calculate how old I am, but their parents and even more importantly, their teachers (my co-workers) can. I've now reached that certain age where I am the second oldest faculty member at one of my schools and believe me, the parents and teachers look younger every year. In fact, I have children the same age as some of the faculty members (and unfortunately, a few of the parents). And I remember a couple of them when they were students in our building. I have to remind myself not to raise my eyebrows when they call me by my first name.

All of this is leading up to the fact that my birthday will be here-again!-in 3.5 weeks. I'll be turning 56 and I have to tell you this one is hitting me hard. I breezed through 40, 45, 50 (well, maybe not so much), and 55 only to come slamming up against 56. I keep thinking about how that's only 4 years from 60 when I hope to retire. I already feel like I'm a dinosaur at work although I do have much wisdom to offer those 24 year olds. And I've had a couple of minor age-related health problems. A pain in my hip after walking that my sister, a physical therapist, thinks is probably a touch of arthritis. (She insisted I'm not too young to have arthritis, but what does she know? She's only 54). The nice dentist I consulted yesterday said that my toothache is probably because the filling last week came close to the nerve and that as we get older, it takes us longer to bounce back. Yeah, I'm relieved I don't need root canal (yet), but I have a toothache because I'm old??? Sheesh!!

Comments

  1. DebJuly 21, 2009 at 2:20 PM

    I had to laugh at this post. I remember the moon landing (among a lot of other things). I'm an older mom and I had accidently slipping up and mentioning that I watched a particular event. They think I'm as old as dirt anyway - don't want them to think I'm older.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MysteryKnitterMay 1, 2015 at 8:03 AM

    I hope you don't need a root canal in the future either. It's no fun.
    I am too young to remember the moon landing in person, but I have read about it.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

For the Good Times

Image
Today is my 35th wedding anniversary. We were married in the church in my hometown in southeast Nebraska. No air conditioning and people thought my husband was nervous when they saw him shaking his leg. He was just trying to get the sweat to run down it a bit faster! Mine was the first of three weddings my parents planned, and since I had spent the summer in Pennsylvania working and setting up our new apartment, most things fell to my mother. My parents decided to have the reception in my hometown and that meant there was only one venue--the "supper club." Actually, this was the basement of the local pool hall/bar and had formerly been a bowling alley when my mother was a teenager. Although there wasn't a private room, my parents figured very few people other than wedding guests would be there since it was also the weekend of the county fair. Sometimes I miss life in small town Nebraska. Mostly not. Turned out they were right, but choosing that venue also meant that they
Read more

WIP Wednesday

Image
We are not so patiently waiting for spring to arrive in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Four nor'easters in March is just cruel and I've had enough of this cold weather.  The upside is that it makes it easy to stay inside and stitch.  I'm making progress on a few things, but for reasons not clear to me, I've had a hard time settling down with one project.  I had the pleasure of taking two classes with Catherine Theron at the end of March.  You can see the projects she taught on the Salty Yarns website by clicking on the Events tab.  When I got home I was inspire to find the piece from the first class I took from Catherine at the Delaware Valley Historic Sampler Guild  many (maybe 10??) years ago.  This will become a Quaker sewing case. During class, I struggled putting in the black for the Florentine pattern which is why I put it away all these years.  After looking at it closely, I found and corrected several mistakes.  I filled in several of the diamonds whi
Read more

Happy Birthday, Winter Baby

Image
This is our daughter's 18th birthday, and coincidentally, my brother's birthday. They were born 40 years apart--you do the math. My third pregnancy was a surprise. I don't usually tell people since I don't think it's fair to my daughter to advertise that. I'm sure none of you will break it to her, though. Because I was an "older" mother--all of 38--I had some genetic testing done early in the pregnancy. The alpha fetal protein test, the one that checks for neural tube deficits like spina bifida, came back positive twice and I ended up having to have amniocentesis. We chose not to find out the baby's gender. My daughter was due on December 12 and early in December, my doctor was telling me that it would be any day. On the 12th I had definite signs that labor should begin soon, but nothing happened. On the 17th, I went to the hospital to be induced. On the way, my husband and I speculated about what the baby would look like. We already had a boy wi
Read more