to be any of the kids I see today. I’m okay being who and what I am right now. What I miss is energy and opportunities no longer available. And the knowledge that I will never learn some things I have always wanted to learn because I don’t have enough time. Like certain piano pieces (yes, some of them take years). And French.

Also, I’d love to hang glide but would probably break bones doing it. And at some point, the average person might be able to go into orbit. We’re not talking Saturday night orgy, just maybe around the moon.

Years ago, after I was widowed, I decided to dress up for Halloween and I had an invitation to a Halloween party from a young woman I had met in commercial acting class (I was trying everything then to fill up my idle time). So I put a raincoat on over my costume and took the subway and after I got to the party, I went into the bathroom and did the wig and make-up.

The costume has become my unvarying Halloween effort and I will probably dress up again on Thursday just to wow the neighbors. It is white leotard, white tights, silver shoes with buckle, white sheer cape, white peaked hat with glitter on it, white stage makeup, white silver mask (easier than eye make-up which I used to do), and white flowing wig under the hat. I am the White Witch.

Well, the body is still okay and the make-up masked my age and I got hit on at the party at one point surrounded with several young men in their 20s. Well, dang, I didn’t know what to say to them. As Durante used to say, “How humiliatin’.”

Well, I extricated myself and circulated, but felt a bit out of sync. I didn’t have the current jargon, the current interests were a mystery to me, I couldn’t talk schools nor pop culture. The reason you "can't go home again" is they tore the building down.

And one last anecdote … years ago I was on AOL for a while and went into a teen chat room and pretended to be one of them. I attracted the interest of a young guy who was bowled over by my smarts (well, yeah, I had at least 40 years on him). Eventually I said goodbye and clicked out and went into an over 50 room where I had some friends and also ops (regulars are sometimes given the power to change topics and direct activity – called “ops” for options).

The kid followed me into the room and instant messaged me … “how come you have ops,” he asked. “Older people like me,” I answered. But maybe by then, he had caught on. Oh, foo.

xx, Teal