The big 4-0

By By Steve Gillespie / special to The Star
October 26, 2003
Over-the-hill jokes are real funny when you're young.
When you are the over-the-hill joke, black balloons, cakes decorated like cemeteries, gifts disguised as caskets, and pop-up tombstone birthday cards are in bad taste.
We accept those things because we are too shocked to be offended.
There was a time I could not imagine turning 40 years old but, I did it last week anyway. Fortunately, little jolts have been preparing me for the shock of old age for the past year:
I was talking to my wife, Leigh, about a friend of ours not being familiar with some trivial thing that was common knowledge to us and she said, "What do you expect, she's only 30."
People have started offering me vitamins instead of a stick of gum.
For the first time I heard someone describe me as a guy with gray hair.
And, I saw the commercial on television that said, "if you were born between 1918 and 1963, call this number … you may be eligible for some old people stuff."
Turning 40 is one of those threshold years when you expect to pass into some mystical realm of a lifetime the fifth dimension following childhood, adolescence, young adulthood and thirty-something.
I actually had several Twilight Zone experiences as I got closer to the Big 4-0.
Whenever I wear a baseball cap I magically turn into a world famous Hollywood director. At least six times over the past year I have been mistaken for Steven Spielberg: There was the fan at The Rolling Stones Concert in Nashville, the beer vendor at the jazz festival in New Orleans, the security guard at the Tom Petty concert in Nashville, some kids at a Bob Dylan concert in Jackson, and two workers on different occasions at Bonita Lakes Cinema.
The sad thing is besides not being able to get anything free out of it is that Steven Spielberg is 56.
Celebrities who are 40 this year include: Tory Amos, William Baldwin, Downtown Julie Brown, Coolio, Lauren Holly, Whitney Houston, Michael Jordan, Lisa Kudrow, Julian Lennon (John's oldest son), Norm MacDonald, Marla Maples, Mark McGwire, George Michael, Mike Myers, Tatum O'Neal, Jimmy Osmond, Brad Pitt, Rob Schneider, Seal, Elisabeth Shue, John Stamos, Quentin Tarantino, and Travis Tritt. Hopefully some of those names will make a few readers feel as old as I do.
Turning 40 has been a reflective time for me. Of course every year there is more life to reflect on. I'm sure much of it is no different from other new 40-year-olds.
My earliest memories are big-finned cars with huge, protruding tail lights and watching Flipper, Batman and Gentle Ben on television.
The first record I bought was Paul McCartney and Wings, "Band on the Run." The first president I was really conscious of was Richard Nixon and Watergate was the first scandal I ever got bored with.
We are older than Medicare and the Super Bowl but younger than Michael Jackson. We were the first kids to go to Disney World and the test audience for Sesame Street.
Like every generation we have certain memories and events that stand out above all the rest in our lifetime the first moon landing, O.J. Simpson, Disco, Southern rock, pet rocks, punk rock, video games, Reaganomics, Rubik's Cube, MTV, the Internet, Rap, Smurfs, Slick Willie, Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian, O.J. Simpson again, impeachment, international terrorism and day-time talk shows.
And, it's only just begun.