(Yeah, I'm a fan)
I can recall my 30th birthday because of someone calling me in the middle of the night to be the first to wish me a happy birthday.
I can recall my 40th birthday because the choir of the church I was serving would start the Worship with a song, and the song that day was "Happy Birthday".
And now that I'm getting closer to 50 - much closer - I have to admit that I can feel my heels dragging just a pinch.
The other day as I was driving down the road, I recalled a trip I took with my dad when I was little. I believe we were going to my Grandpa Burkhardt's 50th birthday party.
I could be wrong on a detail or two, but again, I reference my newly acquired age.
I do remember thinking about Grandpa being 50, and thinking "Boy, he's really getting old". Umm, yeah.
I also remember doing the math in my head as I was walking home from elementary school on Columbus Ohio, and thinking "how old will I be in 2000, and what year will I be 30, 40, 50, etc?" And again, the idea of a new century seemed far fetched, let alone being 50 years old. Thank God there was a nice old lady that lived a couple doors down from us who taught me about Heaven and such (it's where I remember first learning "...red, and yellow, black, and white, they are precious in his sight..." and learning about "letting Jesus into your heart", using a particular picture as an illustration).
But as I've rounded the last corner on the road to 50, the idea of being "old enough to be a grandpa" and not being so shocked when the movies I enjoyed in my younger days comes on American Movie Classics.
But one thing that sticks in my head was a recent trip to meet my new doctor. As we were going through my file, I noticed my age and discussed my family history and mentioned "you have a couple of years for "that" procedure.
Then he saw my birth date and said "see you soon".
