I think I've discovered what it is that truly makes a guy feel old. It isn't receding hairlines and expanding waistlines, or the fact that you have to stop and catch your breath anytime you take a flight of stairs too fast. It's the girls. It's that time of year when the high school girls are dressing up for Homecoming dances -- we ran into a large group of them at a pizza place last week, and before that it was the girls at church. Most of them look so cute -- all dressed up in a fancy dress, with thier hair all done up fancy, and trying so hard to look grownup. But one was different, she wasn't cute and she didn't try to look grown up -- she was beautiful, and she was grown up. The only thing that gave her away was the shy way she walked up to me afterwards, and the way her face lit up when I told her I wish I was 15 years old again, so I could have taken her to the dance. And that, dear friends is what has made me feel older than anything I have yet encountered. I told this story to an old girlfriend (and ex-fiance) -- I pointed out that had we gotten married, we would have had a kid that same age by now. And when you're old enough to have a beautiful young woman as a daughter.... You get the idea. Fortunately, she has returned to being a normal, cute teenager (as well as a slightly annoying one at times), and I can manage to not feel so old again.
For a while anyway.