By Leonard Gray / L’Observateur / April 20, 1999

Where in the world does the time go? It seems like only a few months ago I was sitting up late, watching Neil Armstrong taking that first dusty step on the moon. That was 1969. Or thedisco era when I was in college. Or the first music video on MTV (a littleditty called “Video Killed the Radio Star”) in the early 1980s. And then Irealize there’s an entire generation who doesn’t remember Jimmy Carter.

Or Watergate. Or the original Woodstock festival.And suddenly I feel old.

In this newsroom in the past couple of years I’ve had colleagues young enough to be my children. And they’re college graduates. All I can say isthank heaven for Deborah Corrao, who is even older than I am! (Don’t worry…she’ll pay me back for that one!)Yet, I see so much going on nowadays which makes me not only wish I was young but actually makes me feel young. I actually do enjoy much oftoday’s alternative music, even though I can’t get to the music clubs and concerts and see the acts live. I couldn’t at the age I was supposed to haveseen my generation’s acts, either.

And one of the things which I fully enjoy about getting older is that more and more women are attractive to me. Mind you, I’m not getting any moreattractive to women, but I’m realizing more and more that I’m surrounded by beauty of all ages.

Keep this in mind – to an 18-year-old, a teen-age girl is pretty but don’t talk to him about a 35-year-old woman. When I was 35, I felt there were alot of 35-year-old women who looked just fine, thank you. However, the18-year-olds still looked good.

Now that I’m 45, I’m appreciating women of that age more and more, yet the younger women are still attractive. This sort of thinking helps me lookforward to when I’m 50 or 60 or 80. No wonder the late George Burnsseemed so happy all the time – EVERY woman looked attractive to him, since they were ALL younger than he was! There’s an old saying, I’m sure started by a man, that as women get older, men get more distinguished-looking. I can’t say that. There are certainlyexceptions on both sides. Women, in my limited experience, only improvewith age. And, to take another angle on this, wine, women and municipalbonds mature but men never grow up.

What I’m saying, I suppose, is that so much money is spent, so much brain power is wasted, so much worry is used to avoid aging. Scientists aretrying to do everything they can to make us live forever, never mind the problem of where would be put everybody.

But we need to appreciate now, don’t worry about yesterday and don’t worry about tomorrow. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow isn’t here yet, so weshould concentrate on what we can do right here, right now, to make life better.

Leonard Gray is a reporter for L’Observateur

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