You Know You're Old When: An Open Letter To People Who Don't Know Ozzy

I am officially old. I have mentioned my age a few times on the site but - never - has it become so apparent to me that I may feel old. So, what happened?

In the last twenty four hours, on two occasions, I have made pop-references to the studio album, Bark at the Moon. The conversations were about pop culture and I felt it was important enough that Ozzy Osbourne be mentioned in the context of said conversations. Unfortunately, my comments were met with blank stares and comments such as:

"You're what?"
"Bark at the what?"
"I say, huh?"

and

"Umm, I was one."

I mean, really, how can anyone I hang out with not know who Ozzy Osborne is? After all, didn't all of you hang out in your friend's basement and watch MTV and Much Music (when they were pay services) and listen to such classics like Rock 'n' Roll Rebel and Waiting for Darkness?

I had hoped this would never happen. As a matter of fact, I still remember counting down the days of 1999 - not because it was the year the world was going to end when all financial computers would fail and plunge us into the next Stone Age but because I would was almost twenty-six. Oh, to be twenty six again. I never wanted to feel old. It seems the younger generations have a keen ability to make older gents, like myself, feel that age has somehow diminished their value. Just because they are older means they don't know what they're talking about any more. They have lost their "drive" or the "juice" to live. I now recognize what my parent's have been experiencing since I was twelve. What a mouthy little brat that I must have been.

On the flipside, being older has its benefits. It is has been eight years since my twenty-sixth year and I find my attitude towards age has changed. I no longer fear it. It has lost overwhelming significance. It became simply the passage of time. An acceptance that it will happen to everyone whether they like it or not. Age brings wisdom (yah, yah, I hear the laughter from the peanut gallery) and one is able to place the world and their experiences into a larger context. We get to revisit where we've been and, ultimately, have a better understanding where we've been, why we have been there, and where we're going.

To those who are younger than me and, especially, to those who haven't a clue what Bark at the Moon is - it'll get you. It will and, when it does, I will sit back and laugh on the proverbial rocking chair and say: "Who the hell is Justin Timberlake?"

I will reform my attitudes towards those who are older and I should get back my command before I really do get old.

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