FIVE YEARS TO FIFTY

Yours truly, approximately seven months old, 1966, before I was ruined by potables, pussy, and pot.

In one day it will be June 27th, 2010, and on that day I will be forty-five, just five years shy of being half a century old. It's almost impossible for me to contemplate, but this coming September will mark the thirtieth anniversary of me starting high school (back in those days, my high school only went from grades 10 through 12). That was the same year that saw the release of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and Devo's crossing into mainstream pop culture history with their breakthrough hit "Whipit," which is in many ways to me the anthem for the start of the 1980's. (NOTE: contrary to popular belief, both "Cars" and "Pop Muzik" are from 1979, so they don't count as Eighties music.) Though well-remembered, those high school days become more and more distant with each passing year and I can hardly believe that myself and my friends from those days, several of whom I remain close to, were ever that young and unformed...

Tonight I will be partying with the NYC-based friends who don't usually make it to the annual do that I share with my friend Cat, and I think the party just might be the tonic I need to raise my spirits.

Yours Truly in the present. To paraphrase Bugs Bunny: "He was somebody's baby once..."