Carrie-oke and Feeling Old

Several things made feel old today. Older than my 41 years.
(This does not count getting out of bed in the morning after
sleeping on a mattress that is ten years past it's prime...I
have this feeling every morning) I was finishing up my
lunch when I looked on the I:common computer drive and saw that
my friend Carrie had placed a list of Karaoke songs on the drive
for people to peruse. Now, I don't Karaoke, and I find it funny
that Carrie likes Karaoke, even re-naming it Carrie-oke (but I
digress). Anyway, I noticed on the list that under the group
name "Journey" (my favorite band in high school) was listed the
song "Take it on the Run", which any self-respecting 80's music
aficionado knows was sung by REO Speedwagon. I quickly wrote to
Carrie and told her this and as I was typing realized how truly
sad this was...I actually knew who wrote a really crappy song by
a really crappy group over 25 years ago. Always gracious, Carrie
informed me that "i don't think its sad at all that you know
this". How nice of her, considering I first listened to this song
probably about the time her parents had that look in their eyes and
were thinking...Let's have a daughter...named...Carrie.


To compound my feelings of old-ness, I was having a discussion with
Tom (the other Tom on Station) this morning and in some strange
state of goofy-ness, brought up Euell Gibbons. For those who are
Carrie's age or younger, Euell was one of the original pop-culture
naturalists and did television commercials for Grape Nuts. He was
famous for saying, "Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible."
Anyway, he died in 1975...32 YEARS AGO! HOLY CRAP!
I thought. I remember when he died. Of course I remember when lots
of people, famous or not, died, but for some reason, I had no idea
that this weird dude who nibbled on pine cones died 32 years ago.
So between Carrie's kind but unmistakeable (it's not bad that you
know that Mr. Old Guy) email reply and the whole Euell Gibbons memory
fiasco, I want to go home and pull the blankets over my head. Ugh, but
then there's that crummy mattress...