I have always had fun with my age after I realized that I was a Leap Year baby meaning I had one
birthday for every 4 years I have lived. When I was 16 in 1952 I said I
was 4 and in the year 2000 I had a sweet 16 party but it was in 1949,
when I had my Bar Mitzvah at the age of 13 that I started to say that I was older than I really was.

It
was at 14, when I was going to the bars and baths in NYC when the legal
age for drinking was 18, that I got a phony ID and, ironically, I was
never 'carded'.  When I was in the Marines whether in California, Korea
or Japan I always added a few years to my age and after I left the
Marines and lived in Hollywood, Ca., and Miami Beach, Florida, even
though I was in my 20s I said i was 30. Most people, as a rule, found
twenty to twenty- nine year olds very obnoxious with their know it all attitude and that doesn't seem to have changed 50
years later. I don't know what happens at 30 but it seems like all of a
sudden people started to respect you.

It
was at the age of 33 when I became 'Director Of Operations' for Weight
Watchers of Greater Memphis, Eastern Arkansas, Western Tennessee and
Chattanooga that I started to have my 'hair stylist' spray gray into my
temples to give me that distinguished look when I went on TV or did
newspaper interviews plus added a year or two to my age, thinking it
gave me more authority.

After
my Tenth Leap Year birthday it was explained to me that the Chinese
always said that you were a year older than you thought you were. For
instance when you celebrated your 40th birthday you were actually
starting your 41ST year of life and I adapted that idea. I have, since
1978, waited until July to make myself that year older. As an example I
am, by my birth certificate, 77, or 19 1/4 Leap years, old but now, when
asked I will say I am 78. Somehow or other when February comes around
in 2014 my being 78 is already a part of my life.

Just
for the record don't say "Age is only a number" or "You are as old as
you feel" or other BS like that--I've already written a blog on how
stupid those sayings are--they are usually said by people under 60 and
people who have not felt just the physical aches and pains of aging or
how your body changes as you age.

I
have never worried about being old or getting older as much of my left I
have lived, loved and been friends with people older than me, with some
exceptions, so I know/knew what was ahead of/for me.

I
was usually the youngest one in the crowd but that is not true now.
Aside from some of the people who live here in Gateway I am the oldest
one of my friends. I love being old and being able to look back on where
I've been and how I came to where I am now. It is, also, amusing to
read blogs by kids in their 20s, 30s, 40, 50s and 60s knowing where they
are and where they are going and what they will learn. The one thing I
have learned is that though we all like to think we are different and/or
unique we really aren't. A book I read in 1972 called "Passages"
written by Gail Sheehy, about men and the different stages they go through is as true today as it was then and recommend all 20 year old men read it.

And,
oh yes, young people always know better than their elders and do the
former never listen to the latter because they know better and aren't
like others--that NEVER changes!!!!