Looking ahead at age 85

Paul Weeks
Published Tuesday, Feb 7, 2006
THE STOCKTON (Ca) RECORD

When do people quit being shy about their age and start bragging about it?

In their vintage years, it seems to me. Particularly if they want to celebrate life rather than mourn the passing years.

I was surprised on my 85th birthday to find my spouse, Barbara, not only had invited family and neighbors to the party, but also colleagues from my early years in journalism. She even hired caterers who rented a tent and hired a mariachi band. I found myself dancing the Mexican Hat Dance despite an aching back.

One interesting way of looking at your birthday is to count your age now in comparison with the same number of years before you were born. I was born on a day a blizzard swept North Dakota. The doctor took a horse and sleigh 14 miles through the storm to our house.

(I've never forgiven my mother for telling me that I instructed the stork to land at our house. It was no weather for a stork to be flying. I thought the truth was far more interesting than the fable.)

Suppose I had lived my life backward in time.

Eighty-five years before I was born would have been the winter of 1835. George Washington had died only 36 years before. James Madison, the fourth president, was still alive - but not for long. Abraham Lincoln was assas