If you’re a mere babe of 50 or so, you can probably skip this. 60+? You may share my sentiments. I think it’s time to turn off the news now. Too many stories are talking about what was going on forty years ago. How could any of us be forty years older?

July 20th Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon and said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

From August 15 to August 17, over 400,000 people formed a giant community in the mud in Bethel, New York to create Woodstock.

We elected Richard Nixon as President, while Israel chose former Milwaukee resident Golda Meir.

The draft returned. PBS came into being. Gas was 35 cents a gallon.

We saw politics in the many anti-Viet Nam War protests, the Black Power salutes at the 1998 Summer Olympics, and the 2009 Stonewall Riots that sparked the Gay Rights movement and the annual Pride Parade.

It’s the cultural events that make me feel older, though. Can you believe that Big Bird is 40? Sesame Street debuted in 1969. How did that shape the lives of your children? Monty Python’s Flying Circus came into being as well … “and now for something completely different ….”

We are wearing minis and adopting or ignoring bell bottoms and tie-dye while watching Easy Rider or trying not to drool during Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. (Admit it! Eye candy.)

Sitting in the rain at the Clearwater Festival, having Arlo Guthrie remind me that I had sat in the rain listening to him at Woodstock 40 years ago made me feel old. Lucky, but old.

Excuse me, I’m going to turn off the TV and go listen to some Creedence Clearwater Revival. Or maybe Simon and Garfunkel. Or Marvin Gaye. And sing along. And dance.

Old? Not me! What about you?