Getting Old
I was watching an old John Wayne movie late the other night right after the news of Walter Cronkite's death was reported. As I watched and tried to identify the actors as best I could from having first seen them in my youth, it struck me that every one of the people I could identify was dead. John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ward Bond, Ricky Nelson and half a dozen others I can't remember now. Not to mention that most of the other lesser known players are probably dead as well.
Anyway, without getting too morbid about it, when you reach a certain age, the characters that peopled your youth and affected your world view, provided entertainment and were household names start to disappear and are replaced by others that, for some reason, seem to be lesser lights. I pondered why that might be and couldn't really come up with anything. I'm sure that contemporary movie actors, musicians, writers etc. are every bit as talented as those that have gone before, but I don't think it's about talent. Maybe, when youth is gone, the memories from it seem larger and more important than they really are.
I know none of this has anything to do with real estate per se, but it does help explain why selling an old home place has an effect on the sellers out of proportion to the transaction itself and why many buyers like to purchase older homes that, just maybe, remind them of a simpler, kinder time.
Anyway, without getting too morbid about it, when you reach a certain age, the characters that peopled your youth and affected your world view, provided entertainment and were household names start to disappear and are replaced by others that, for some reason, seem to be lesser lights. I pondered why that might be and couldn't really come up with anything. I'm sure that contemporary movie actors, musicians, writers etc. are every bit as talented as those that have gone before, but I don't think it's about talent. Maybe, when youth is gone, the memories from it seem larger and more important than they really are.
I know none of this has anything to do with real estate per se, but it does help explain why selling an old home place has an effect on the sellers out of proportion to the transaction itself and why many buyers like to purchase older homes that, just maybe, remind them of a simpler, kinder time.
I was thinking the same thing after I heard the news about Cronkite. The shine that with John Wayne, Cronkite etc..just isn't the same as when we were kids. I really don't know most of the actors in movies; I know I love movies and if I don't care to go anymore, something is changing in me and I do believe it is just OA beginning to make itself known, even John Wayne and Walter Cronkite are mortal. It is so sad to not quite be able to get the same feelings about a lot of things back anymore. I realize that the excited, anything is possible, Christmas Eve etc...memories are now being made only by my grandchildren, even my children are too old now to feel a lot of their own childhoods. Wouldn't it be great to go back to the Burger Inn with Nanny and eat as many FF and hamburgers as you want and know nothing of calories and cholesterol. I have never had a hamburger since that was as good.
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It's true that, more and more these days, I find myself thinking back to the "good old days". I know intellectually that a lot of those days weren't really all that good, but some of them were really outstanding and memorable. Those are the ones that I like to reminisce. Sometimes a song on the Oldies channel will take me right back to a certain day of my youth and I just wish I could really feel that good again and not just be trying to remember how things were.
But, I think it was Art Linkletter (another name that a lot of young folks wouldn't recognize) that said, "Getting old is not for sissies!" Boy was he right on the money with that one!
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