On Age – 64 Sentences About Turning 64

I had a birthday a week ago. Yes, I am still having those. We grouse a bit as we age, but (as everyone has said throughout all of history) it beats the alternative. Don’t ask me for a fact citation on that last statement. There is no doubt that every single human being in the history of the world has uttered that statement. I think it may have been edited out of Genesis, but I am quite sure that both Adam and Eve said it to each other. Anyway, I had another birthday. And it was Number 64.

I don’t know why this age milestone seems so momentous. When I was a kid I remember The Beatles singing about it. I did not know at the time that it was on their 1967 album Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. But then again, I was all of 8 years old when the album was released, so I’m entitled to some slack. After all, I was still in my Monkees phase.

I could scarcely imagine attaining the age of 64. My grandparents were that age. Well, only one of them. My maternal grandma was only 63 at the time. Sixty-Four seemed to be an age for being fat, bald, and spending long days lazing away in a rocking chair talking about the way things used to be. Maybe it really is, because I am kind of doing that here. Well, except for the bald part and the fact that I am sitting in a chair that doesn’t rock as I write this.

I remember that same grandma turning 64 a year later. How old she was. She seemed so much older than the way I had remembered her a year or two earlier. Yup, there was no denying it – 64 was old, old, old. As in a lot of years. It was like a year for each one of the crayons in the big box of 64 that was always at our house. You remember, the one with the sharpener in the back.

It is funny that I do not remember my mother turning 64. I do remember my father turning that age because it would be his last birthday. He was definitely old, but a lot of that was twenty-five years’ accumulation of chronic health issues. Some of them were things he brought on himself. Like the three-pack-a-day smoking habit and the combination of high stress and low exercise. Other ailments just kind of rode along with the first batch.

Personally I would kind of like to dodge 64. Would that be called a 64 Dodge? And could I dodge 64 in this kind of 64 Dodge? It might be fun to try. I found a chart that says I’m most likely to die of cancer at age 64 but most likely to die of heart disease starting at age 65. I think I would prefer death by heart disease to death by cancer, so this is just one more reason to go for a 64 Dodge.

There are other associations I have with 64 – like ones from Commodore (an early computer) and Nintendo (a now-classic game console). I now know that mathematicians refer to 64 as a super perfect number. I am not sure demographers would agree though, because 64 is the last advertising demographic group with an end date. This has been important because there has always been at least one demographic group above mine. In another year that will no longer be true because I will be in that terminal demographic that is euphemistically called “65+”. Plus what, is what I want to know.

There was also an old quiz show that ran on radio from 1950-52 called “The $64 Question”. Well, it had actually started as “Take It Or Leave It” in 1940. Then its name was changed. Take it or leave it is a pretty good description of the way I feel about 64. “The $64 question” became slang for a really tough question, because it was the hardest question on the show. So how I feel about 64 (besides take it or leave it) is a really hard question too. Hopefully I remain ever sharp at 64.

Now here I am myself, and I don’t feel the least bit old. Except for when I have been sitting for awhile and am all stiff when I get up. But, um, yea – I just need to get limbered up for a few seconds and I am good as new. There is an appropriately named distillery in my state that may offer some relief from this. Although I suppose it is possible to get too limber this way (or would it only get me stiff again?).

There is, however, no denying that I am getting older, no matter how much I might try to dodge it, question it, color it or medicate it. I am one year away from Medicare, and if that isn’t old I don’t know what is.

But there is nothing to be done about it. So let’s all say it together: – – – “It sure beats the alternative” – and then let us all eat cake.

30 thoughts on “On Age – 64 Sentences About Turning 64”

  2. Happy Birthday!

    Some numbers do seem to have more associations stemming from various sources, with 64 certainly being one. Getting curious and looking at the Urban Dictionary just now, “64” has even more meanings, with reference to Chevrolets, California ballot measures, rap music, and a few other miscellaneous items.

    The Mrs. and I once knew a priest who celebrated his birthday by doing so for one day for each year he’d accumulated. So you could celebrate for 64 days. It could allow for more than just one birthday cake.

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    • 64 Days of Cake – I like it! Unfortunately, I predict something along the order of 64 additional pounds that would have to come back off afterwards.

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  4. Always thought 64 was a weird number to always seems to appear, seems like 60 would be the bench mark, or 65, since that was the old social security retirement age. I’m 69 this year, and it seems like 70 is going to be the bench mark for me. I’ve given myself until the end of my 70th year to divest myself of my storage facility, and all extraneous worldly goods. I’m in a small apartment, and anything that doesn’t fit in by then will be gone! If I can sell it, I’m donating it to schools, or whatever, or junking it! Then, I can figure out what to do for my closing moments.

    Congrats are in order J.P. It’s no simple feat these days to make it past 60!

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    • Haha, thank you. You are right – at some point we go from always wanting to accumulate to needing to de-accumulate. I am at that point right now. The problem is that I have lived in the same house since 1993. And it has both a 2 car garage and a basement. So there is a lot of de-accumulation to be done!

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      • Although I moved back from the east coast to look out for my mom after my dads passing, my sisters when they were in town, tried to “deaquisition” my mothers basement and all other areas, loaded with 40 year old knitting magazines never looked at in 30 years, exercise equipment never used, and similar items. My mother went off like I’ve never seen her, and said they could throw her stuff out after she was gone! Weird reaction, but sometimes I think that people like my mom and dad, that went through the depression years, seemed to be more interested in having “stuff”, maybe because in their teens and twenties, they could have nothing? But interestingly enough, it wasn’t premium stuff either: buy the most inexpensive, keep it, never get rid of it even if it wasn’t totally functional.

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  6. I remember in grade 3 we were doing math and calculated how old we would be in the year 2000. My answer was 33, which seemed impossibly old and the year 2000 seemed impossibly far away.

    Now here we are in 2023, you’re 64 and I’m 56. Well done on getting this far, and well done on having an enjoyable life so far!

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    • I remember doing that same as a kid thing about my age in 2000. 41!?!? One foot in the grave! Now, I find a 41 year old barely old enough to know what he’s doing.

      I will warn you that the rest of your 50s will zip by faster than any prior period of your life. I think age is like a game of Crack the Whip. The farther out you get, the faster it goes.

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      • When my now-late grandfather was 92 or 93 he gave me some insight on aging.

        He disclosed how the first fifty years go by at a decent pace but that second fifty goes quickly. Continuing, he said he had recently looked in the mirror to shave and “scared the hell out of myself”. Why? The old man staring back at him…he said it took a second to realize he was looking at himself. He said if you can maintain your dignity while aging that is a success.

        He made it to 96 and frequently called anyone under 80 a youngster.

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  7. Oh, boy! When I showed up here this morning, I didn’t know there’d be cake. Yum!

    Glad to hear your birthday was a happy one. I’m nipping at your heels, age-wise and have taken notice of a t-shirt that’s making the rounds in internet ads: “It’s Strange Being the Same Age as Old People.”

    Ain’t it the truth? When I was a young whippersnapper, some out of town relatives would drive from about two hours away for a visit. At the time, they certainly seemed like fossils. Even their names sounded old- Norbert and Blanche. Looking back, they were probably somewhere between 65 and 75.

    Being firmly established as 60+ kind of puts a different perspective on them these days.

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    • I have had too many people (who know what they’re talking about) tell me not to get old, so I don’t really have a burning desire to hit 100. But even a lifespan of 84 gives me another 20 years, which should be plenty of time.

      I loved the meme – how true!

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    • I will let the number of comments land wherever it lands. And yes, in a year, I’ll probably wish I was only 64.

      My grandfather (the one I wrote about last week) was ailing and in the hospital as he approached his 101st birthday. Even then, he had his sense of humor as he lamented, “Oh, to be 100 again.”

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  10. Happy Birthday, my friend! Love that song and this is a great post. Not bad for an oldtimer. I can say that because you are a year older than me. I often look in the mirror and wonder how I can feel the same as I always did but am now trapped in an old man’s body. I can remember the days of thinking about how old a person must be. I wouldn’t be 60 until like, 2020.

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  11. Happy Birthday JP! The first thing I thought of as I saw the headline was “When I’m Sixty Four” … such a fun song and now I have an ear worm from hearing it again. I had a “Monkees phase” too, though I’m three years older than you. I remember the deluxe box of 64 Crayola crayons. Somehow the primary colors always got used up before straying to the colors with the sometimes odd names.

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    • At our house, it was the silver and gold crayons that got worn to nubs. Did any kid ever choose “Sepia” or “Burnt Umber” if there was anything else available?

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      • The names probably scared us off, so we chose the familiar colors. I loved coloring as a kid and since I had no siblings, I used to sit with my mom and we’d color together. She’d always complain that I colored outside the lines. 🙂

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  12. Happy Belated Birthday, sir!

    As someone who majored in math in college, I’d like to (try to) explain the mathematical “perfectness” 64: if you add up the positive factors of 64 (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64), you get 127. If you add up the positive factors of 127 (only 1 and 127 itself since 127 is prime — it’s only factors are 1 and itself), you get 128, which is twice of 64. That is what is meant by “perfection” here — the sum of the factors of the sum of the factors of the original number is twice the original number. I fully admit that for most people that is both esoteric and unavailing but it does have meaningful applications within the field mathematics.

    Other interesting mathematical observations on 64: It is both a perfect square (8 x 8) and a perfect cube (4 x 4 x 4). It is also the highest power of 2 (64 is 2^6) that a human can reach in their lives (though at 122, Jeanne Calment did get admirably close to 2^7).

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    • You remind me why I went to law school instead of engineering school – math was never my thing. Knowing that I have reached my last age that is a power of two is a little depressing – like hitting that terminal “65+” demographic, but a year earlier. There’s nowhere to go from here. 🙂

      I like to think the number is perfect if only because of the lovely combination of pure curves with pure straight lines and angles. It is an aesthetically balanced and pleasing number. Which, I suspect the mathematicians consider irrelevant.

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  13. In “Strawberry Wine”, Deanna Carter sings, “I still remember… When thirty was old…” The whole song is a classic but that line gets me every time (because I DO remember when thirty was old). Suddenly I’ve got twice as many years to speak for. Seems they go faster the older we get. But as long as you have cake, what difference does the number make, right?

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    • That is a really good song that makes a great point. I keep blasting through age thresholds that I once thought of as “old”. The truth is getting harder to explain away. It’s a good thing that cake is medicinal.

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