Turning 80
It’s a good thing to have another birthday
This is not us, but it could be, aside from all the medals. We are that old.
Who wants to be 80?
It used to be just about unthinkable, turning 80. Turning 40 was already scary enough. Just ask my kids — it freaks them out that they are that old.
But John has just turned 80. And to put it in perspective, I asked him where he was for each of his decade birthdays. Starting at birth, then age 10 and so on. Here are the best-guess answers:
0 — Born in Trenton NJ, went home to the New Jersey State Home for Boys, where his father worked in those early war years.
10 — Melrose MA, a party with friends from his 6th grade class. His father ran the local YMCA, his mother of course stayed home and kept house. John was in 5th grade, and had an interest in rocketry and space. Also firecrackers.
20 — In Pennsylvania, YMCA camp counselor during the summer, getting ready for his senior year at Princeton. Majoring in Chemistry and Astronomy.
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30 — In Nova Scotia or on a ferry to Newfoundland, camping with the 3 little kids and me after becoming a tenured professor at MIT. We tent-camped out of our Pontiac sedan and picked blueberries where we could find them.
40 — Getting the car and tent trailer ready to drive the family (now 5 kids) to Tucson ‘for one year’, a sabbatical at University of Arizona. New baby, cross-country trip.
50 — Family camping vacation at Yellowstone after being hired as a full professor at UA and moving to Tucson. Also publishing several space-science books for non-scientists (Mining the Sky, Rain of Iron and Ice, etc).
60 — Camping up north, in Anacortes WA down by the water, just before 9/11. Just the two of us. Would this be a good place to settle, here, away from the AZ heat?
70 — Canoeing with visiting family in our red canoe called Many Coots, in a lake in Anacortes WA where we had settled and raised veggies and some ducks.
80 — At home in Tucson AZ, a month of celebration with all 6 kids, 14 grands, and 2 great grands, out of the 34 grands (plus spouses) and 6 great grands that we have. Family spread out in 7 states and 3 countries.
Ten year intervals are too broad, though. They’ve left out the 7 years farming in suburban Boston (with dozens of goats) and all sorts of moves and adventures. It’s left out our living in Beijing and New Zealand.
It also leaves out the the fact that we got married. But he was 22 then so it doesn’t show up on this list. That’s ok — it happened anyway.
John’s dad didn’t make it to 80, nor did his father before him. The most recent relative who did was his mother, who lived to 90.
That sounds like a good next step. I wonder what the next 10 years will bring. (John says he will celebrate the 10th anniversary of reaching his 80th birthday!)
Are we in Tucson to stay? Probably. Family is here, and that makes all the difference. We have great grandchildren now. Just 20 years till they’ll have kids of their own. That’s…2041. Sure, why not? He’ll be 100.
