One of the toughest adjectives to define is the word “old.”
I had my first experience with that more than 25 years ago when I was in a store buying a couple of autographed baseballs.
I don’t remember how much they cost, but I purchased signed baseballs from Hall of Famers Frank Robinson and Johnny Bench. Both had their entire careers during my lifetime, Robinson from 1956-76 and Bench from 1967-83.
The young woman at the counter smiled. “Oh, you like the old timers.”
To me, old timers weren’t guys who played when I was an adult, especially one whose last season came when I was 33 years old. All these years later, though, Robinson is no longer with us and Bench is 74 years old.
Now the balls are signed by old timers.
Not that big a deal, since I have become something of an old-timer myself. I’m more than two years past the Biblical three score and ten, so anything good that comes at this point is a bonus. I have been blessed enough to see both of my children striving toward pinnacles in their lives and careers, and doubly blessed to see my grandchildren growing toward wonderful lives of their own.
The three who are Pauline’s children have occupied a special place in my heart since the day they were born, but the three boys who joined the family when Pauline married Johnathan are every bit as special to me.
I don’t know if an afterlife includes being able to watch the people we love who outlive us, but I certainly hope so.
But I digress. Being old wasn’t the reason for this piece.
What amused me is what people seem to think of as old. I noticed a clickbait article on Facebook that was talking about horror movies. The premise was that old horror movies are scarier than new ones.
I thought it might be interesting, and when the article followed my one rule for clickbait, I started going through it.
My one rule is a good one. Everything is on one page.
Of course the problem was what the author considered “old.”
I wasn’t really expecting the great Universal films from the 1930s, or even “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.” In fact, when both the original “Psycho” and “The Birds” made the list, and when the author said if you liked “The Haunting of Hill House” from 2018, you should check out the original from 1963, I was hopeful.
Then he called “Poltergeist” an old movie.
From 1982.
And “Silence of the Lambs.”
From 1991.
And Rob Zombie’s “Halloween 2.”
From 2009.
I have grandchildren older than that.