I’ll be the first to admit this since I’m now on the receiving end of it: I was once young and ignorant!
This is something that I’ve always known, but it took Jennifer Lopez on the Super Bowl halftime show and Blanche Devereaux to drive it home again!
The best meme of the week highlighted “50 years old in 1985” and “50 years old in 2020”!
Rue McClanahan of “The Golden Girls” was dressed to kill as a “Maneater” (another 1980’s reference — you’re welcome Hall & Oates) and J. Lo was swinging from a pole in her performance a la “Hustlers”.
As a youngster just getting ready to turn 21-years-old, I thought Blanche was old!
Maybe it’s because McClanahan was surrounded by a cast of actresses more than a decade older than her (Betty White, Bea Arthur, and Estelle Getty). Or, was it was because they were called “The Golden Girls”?
I know that McClanahan was selling “sexy” as an older woman and J. Lo is selling “sexy” as vivacious! (Let me tell you, it works!)
Yet, on the other hand, I never considered my mother, Dessie, old.
When she died at the age of 47, in 1990, I still considered her a “young” woman. Yet, I saw Blanche as old!
Bizarre!
And, here’s where my youth and ignorance really showed, in the 1980s, even though I didn’t recognize it then.
When I started going out to “the bar” in Paducah, Kentucky, I’d see men that were probably 30-years-old or in their 30s and I thought “they’re OLD”!
Now, I’m that “OLD” person (and I’m not even talking 30s or 40s)!
These days, when I see and hear the gay youth (20s) saying the same thing, I think, “You’re so stupid! Just wait, you’ll be on the receiving end of it before you know it!”
And, here’s something that totally confounds the age logic for me back then even more.
When I was back home on break from college as a 19-year-old, I had a chance “encounter” one hot summer night with the neighborhood hottie that all the women lusted after!
He was 29 — ten years older than me!
Yet, it was so thrilling, I didn’t even think of the age difference. Maybe because he wasn’t 30! 🙂
So, just remember, age is just a number!
Also, keep in mind, that most of us in our 40s and 50s shouldn’t try emulating J. Lo!
This all reminds me of Arnold Becker (Harvey Fierstein) as he was getting into drag in “Torch Song Trilogy”!
“I think my biggest problem is being young and beautiful. It’s my biggest problem because I’ve never been young and beautiful. Oh, I’ve been beautiful. And God knows I’ve been young, but never the twain have met.”
And, because I mentioned 1982’s “Maneater”, Daryl Hall & John Oates’ longest running #1 song at four weeks, here it is!
Anthony
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