This thread is cruel and heartless. Every time I see it I feel like a boy again, holding hands with my girl Jeanine in 4th grade. A time when there was nothing but future ahead of me, a time when I dreamt of being an astronaut and a spy and a brain surgeon and driving a trash truck all at the same time. Because back then the trash truck drivers always rocked satin shirts (a little 70's culture for you millennial types.)
In those days I'd never seen a dog get hit by a car or my friend die trying to quit drinking. I never even imagined someone would intentionally fly an airplane into a building.
My parents were very smart people. They provided a loving, stable home for us, got us regular fluoride treatments, remodeled the kitchen, and very early in the game realized the importance of the home computer. Indeed, it was nothing but future for the young duck.
When I see the title of this thread, just for that brief moment I'm taken back there. Just for a moment I'm on a long walk through the mountains with my dad, I'm at the batting cage, I'm at the racetrack with my grandfather hanging out with Scatman Crothers and Mel from Mel's Diner.
And then it all crashes down. Again and again and again. I can go back and read the title and maybe fool myself once more but then reality hits like a baby being ripped from the mothers breast by a bucket of boiling water.
You don't get to be young again. Get used to it.
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