Young Fogeys ...

Just got off the phone from talking with a longtime girlfriend. And we both wound up lamenting those sudden aches and pains of old age.

And we're both only 23 ... or 24 ... well, give or take a few decades that we won't talk about.

Forgetting the pains, there are multiple advantages to aging ... one being all the fond memories you acquire.

I still recall 5-year-old son, Alex, sitting on a hilltop at the town fair one cool summer evening. We'd wandered past all the arcades, he had ridden all the rides and now we were enjoying greasy hamburgers from the food court.

But when he looked up at me and said "this is the best-est hamburger ever" ... one of those moments was made.

While that moment is only in my memory, others are in the myriad boxes of images and negatives stuffed in my closets. Lately, I've been repackaging our photo albums, trying to get these into some semblance of order. But it is slow going -- trust me, there are a LOT of pictures.

We all go through stages in life, and growing old is just another -- but maybe one that is much more entertaining. We can wear loud colors and bright purple hats with enormous feathers. We can eat, sleep, drink, and - most importantly - shop when we want. We can be as eccentric, outspoken, cranky or opinionated as we want. We get a reprieve and can practice all that early childhood behavior we once learned to control.

And what happens? Everyone chalks it up to old age. If I'd known it was this much fun, I would have turned old long ago.

The only thing I have not figured out is this business about weight. I always thought when you got old enough, it wouldn't matter what you weighed. Who would care. You could get fat.

But, sigh, I must not be that old yet. For all the fun and hollaring, am still on a diet. Go figure.

Maybe in another 10 or 20 years ...