{"id":88179,"date":"2026-01-03T15:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T15:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/88179\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T15:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T15:18:14","slug":"on-turning-76-and-living-in-west-brighton-the-old-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/88179\/","title":{"rendered":"On turning 76 and living in West Brighton | The Old Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I turned 76 in mid-December. I was a little apprehensive because, according to statistics, men usually live until 76 and women until 81. Andy Higgins, an elder comedian, jokes that if he transitions now (he\u2019s 74), he can look forward to at least five extra years. Men\u2019s earlier demise is attributed to accidents, heart disease and substance abuse. Every doctor and physical therapist I work with say I\u2019m in pretty good shape.<\/p>\n

Oh, yeah\u2026I\u2019m in physical therapy now. Remember that leg problem both Joan and I developed? Well, mine has been improving with PT. I actually went there on the afternoon of my birthday. Just another thing to do as you age, but worth it. I still have a ways to go.<\/p>\n

I always love seeing who has a birthday around mine. Famous folks like Keith Richards and Beethoven. Close friends like Bruce Merson.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m always delighted by their accomplishments and somewhat thrilled that we share a birth sign. It gives me hope that good things still exist in the world.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a tough year. We lost Guy Michetti, Cara Liander, Cynthia Mailman, Robert Mosci and Ellen Mitchell. Our state of the nation ain\u2019t so great. We\u2019ve had to deal with the cost of everything going way up, sickness and violence. Still, we persist.<\/p>\n

I could go all sage on you and pronounce what I\u2019ve learned at 76. But, instead, let me say this: Remember that each of us carries a burden that no one else is aware of and that, sometimes, that burden becomes too heavy to carry. Let us try to be kind to each other and lighten the load when we can. A smile, a joke, a good song. <\/p>\n

I looked in the mirror that week and every line, wrinkle and grey hair were still there, mapping out my life for me. I silently blessed them all. Old age is a gift denied to many.<\/p>\n

A couple of days before my birthday, it snowed and I was glad to see it because it meant we had experienced all the seasons in our new home.<\/a> We moved in April. Summer wasn\u2019t too bad, some real scorchers, but on the whole, livable, thanks to ceiling fans. Fall was a delight as was spring. And now winter is knocking on our doors. Let\u2019s hope it won\u2019t knock too loudly or harshly.<\/p>\n

The new place does present some obstacles. The house next door is slowly being rebuilt and sometimes the work starts at 7:30 in the morning. I usually don\u2019t have to be up until 9 a.m., so that\u2019s annoying. The 46 bus comes on a much more reliable basis than the 44 bus. National Grid shows up every so often to look at the hole it dug and cover it back up. And our heating system sounds like the tractor beam used to pull up airplanes in THIS ISLAND EARTH. But, when you weigh these annoyances against feeling safe and secure and living in a house that\u2019s 25 years old instead of 200, they remain small.<\/p>\n

My birthday was completely down low. PT followed by an early bird dinner at La Torretta on Castleton, a stop at Problem Bakers for cookies rather than a birthday cake, followed by binging episodes of \u201cMatlock\u201dand \u201cElsbeth.\u201d Quiet and low key. I was reminded of that expression for the New Year: \u201cWalk in quietly, don\u2019t touch or break anything.\u201d As I age, I long more and more for silences and reflection.<\/p>\n

Over the next week, we celebrated two more birthdays at ONCE: David, the man who plays my son and Dani the director. I always feel safer surrounded by people born around the same time of year as me. I feel like they get me in ways other folks don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

I take tons of photos, mostly because Melissa Alcock, my print editor, asks for them to accompany my columns. I still have pictures of our former place of Beach Street on my phone. I guess it\u2019s the same way I keep pictures of folks who have passed there. Native Americans were probably right about photos: they capture a bit of your soul. You want to hang onto that with people who have passed.<\/p>\n

Looking back over the last 76 years is easy for me because I\u2019m an archivist. I have photos, tapes, diaries and memories of every significant moment of my life. And, I\u2019ve got to say, I\u2019m kind of amazed that a gawky kid from the Bronx has managed to do quite a lot in a relatively short space of time. Most of that time has been spent involved in the arts. It\u2019s time I wouldn\u2019t trade for gold. It has enriched and emboldened me more than anything else. Kurt Vonnegut, author of, among many other books, Slaughterhouse Five once stated:<\/p>\n

\u201cPracticing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow\u2026Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem\u2026.You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.\u201d<\/p>\n

In \u201cFinishing The Hat,\u201d Stephen Sondheim writes: \u201cLook, I made a hat…where there never was a hat.\u201d If we have a legacy, it is based on whatever we have created, whether it is, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said,\u201c a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition.\u201d This is how he measured success.<\/p>\n

I want to thank you all for taking this journey with me. I\u2019ve tried to shine a light on what is to come, especially the darker corners, on things unknown and place a \u201cdanger sign\u201d where I thought it appropriate. Hopefully, I\u2019ll be able to continue doing that for many years to come.<\/p>\n

Hold those magnificent grey heads high!<\/p>\n

Comments may be submitted to \u201cTalk To The Old Guy\u201d on Facebook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I turned 76 in mid-December. I was a little apprehensive because, according to statistics, men usually live until…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-88179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}