If fifty really nifty? I shall soon see, I'll be 50 in June. Now maybe I shouldn't shout my age from the mountaintops, but I will.
My mother used to say that her life began at 40, well I'd have to slightly disagree, and say that maybe it begins at 50 for some of us. Perhaps it did for her, in fact, I'm sure that it did. She got a driver's license in 1970 when she was 40. It opened up a new world for her, really... I got my drivers license when I was 16, one month, one day; as early as the law would allow in the state of Indiana. I have to say that being a girl child of the 60's and 70's definitely had its perks over the 30's and 40's.
I spent the first 19 years of my life living with mom, went from mom to a live in, to the Army (barracks), husband, children... different husband, same kids. Said kids are grown and I haven't seen ex hubby since my daughter, graduated from high school some six years ago. Husband in between, passed away a few years ago. Then there was the roommate thing, which was fun for a few years, but grew tiresome as I came out of the coma induced by 25 years of marriage.
The last of the "boomers" are turning 50, that's me. A strange hybrid we are. We're older than the president! Yikes! Not THAT much, but whatever... While many of the earlier boomers had long since put down their flowers and peace signs to vote for Ronald Reagan, I was trying to figure out how to feed two babies on my ex hubbies E-4 pay.
I do remember what I was doing the day JFK was killed, but from a different perspective. My father wept, my mother wept and even at the ripe old age of 4, I could feel the profound sadness, even if I was too young to understand it. I felt my mother's anger and fear of George Wallace being elected president. I saw her heartbreak at Bobby Kennedy being shot, and then there was Martin Luther King. Janis Joplin and her blues came barreling out of the hi fi that my parents had bought me, probably at great cost. I don't remember a world without The Beatles, and quite frankly, I wouldn't want to. George Harrison was my favorite Beatle, who was yours? Mick Jagger will always be my fave bad boy and the Who will always give me cold chills. I grew up with Rock and Roll, that pleases me too.
Sitting in the "burbs" has never quite been an option for me. Not feeling sorry for myself, I was lucky. I was raised by a single mother, who taught me at a very young age that Prince Charming was nothing more than a fantasy and not everyone "liked Ike" back in the 50's. Of course, I paid no attention to her, as we usually don't pay much attention to our mother's when we're 16. I guess at age 50, its starting to hit home. K, a little slow on the uptake? Possibly, but better late than never, I say.
My daughter is 23 and living with her boyfriend. I'm good with it, unlike my mother who considered it "living in sin". Eventually mom came around, btw, but this mom doesn't have to. I want my daughter to be happy and if this one makes her happy, so be it. I've given her a healthy dose of "mom is always here for you, if you're not so happy." I don't want her to feel trapped. As long as she's strong and confident in her own abilities, I support her happiness. I will probably order her a house warming present this weekend on Amazon.com or maybe do a gift certificate from Pier 1 Imports. I don't want her to have to wait on turning 50 to please herself.
My son is single, 24 and in the Army. What a wild one he is, he just bought a new sports car, which scares the heck out of me. Iraq scared the heck out of me too, but he's home now. I lectured him about being careful in the sports car, but I'm glad he's happy. I'm glad he's experiencing life in a way that his dad never did. I loved his dad once, and I see much of his father in him, but then not so much... Although, I haven't seen his dad in six years, I gotta think that he's so proud of him and perhaps a little jealous of him. BTW, that's not a bad thing. His dad and I both deserved better than what we were able to give ourselves. So much baggage... but, I think we were successful in not handing it down to our kids.
I do have to say that in spite of the bad economy, my children are much better off than either one of their parents were when we were that age. Isn't that the American dream? I feel good about that.
I'm on my own, these days. I'm getting ready to move into a very cheap 1 bdr, cuz the budget is a little tight, but I have a good job, and work myself senseless to hang onto it. I'm doing some serious shopping, while I'm at it. I've never furnished a dwelling for just me, never cooked just for me, never did what I wanted JUST for me...
I like the cyberworld and have been online since 1994. There's a lot to be said for Netiquette, its all but disappeared, but it still lives in my heart. I loved that I got to watch the Internet evolve from telnet to the mass media storm that its become. Some things are good, things are not so good. Blogging is one of those good things, so hear I am... Read it or don't, it feels good to write it down.
I like a good book, I like my soap operas... One Life To Live, when its good. I like my neighbor Keith cuz he never hits on me, but he's a good friend. Sometimes, I invite him over and cook for him. Then he goes home... I like it that way. Currently, I'm in a long distance relationship that is shaky at best. I'm thinking that might not be the way to go. A few years ago, it was the only way to go. Things change, people evolve... I'm evolving and just maybe fifty is nifty?
We shall see.
Liz
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |