Two Old Guys, Talking
My buddy Bud and I got together yesterday at a Starbucks in northeast Fresno. Bud is the “other guy” whose picture you see on this blog. He and I had not seen each other for a couple of months, since my wife and I pulled up stakes in Fresno and moved to our retirement home on the Central Coast. (No, we’re not in a “retirement home” — it’s a house where we are living while retired. You get the idea.)
Bud and I share lots of things in common. For one thing, we both had long careers in broadcast journalism — radio and TV. Bud retired a few years ago from the anchor desk at KSEE-24 in Fresno. I retired a few years ago from the reporting life at KMJ Radio. Another thing we share in common is we both have wives who spent decades working in the Fresno Unified School District. My wife retired recently (thus, our move to the coast) — while Bud’s is on the verge of retiring next month. (You can read Bud’s wonderful tribute to his better half in his “Letter to a Retiring Teacher” blog on this site.)
Bud and I also share something else: We love talking about politics — and about the “good old days” of radio and TV news. In terms of politics, I’m not nearly the Trump fan that Bud is, but we both agree that much of the Washington press corps suffers from “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” and that’s not a good thing for the nation.
As for radio-TV news — whoo, boy. Yes, Bud and I are “old” guys — and “old” guys — no matter what business they were in — tend to look back on their time at work as the “halcyon” days when everything was better and everyone was smarter. We get it — we’re biased. But — having admitted that — the fact is, TV news has changed dramatically — and not for the better — on both the local and national levels since our “salad days.” It used to be derided as simply a “headline service,” and in most ways, it was. But does anyone really believe that the current near-maniacal emphasis on “breaking news” (most of it involving house fires and crime), and the must-have video of cute animals and/or cute children doing cute things — are somehow giving anyone a balanced view of what’s happening in their communities, country or world?
Yes, Bud and I sat outside that Starbucks on that glorious springtime Monday afternoon and chewed the fat over all of this. But we also chewed the fat over the biggest thing we share — our old age. We both came to the conclusion — and not for the first time — that getting older sucks. Yes, you can say, and we would agree, that the alternative to getting older sucks more. But you’d be hard-pressed to disagree, I think, with our conclusion that when you reach a certain age — which we most definitely have — you spend most of your time simply trying to slow the decline of your body. And your body does decline. Oh, my, it does– no matter what you do.
Bud and I spent lots of time talking about various bodily functions that have, uh, changed. Yes, ours was the conversation of old guys — the same conversation I’ve had with other friends, most of whom happen to be in our same age range. It was a conversation none of us “old guys” ever dreamed — decades ago — that we’d be having. But here we are, and there we were, having it. We joked about that, but close behind our laughter was a sense of melancholy and resignation. Yes, we’d love to be younger again — maybe still be in broadcasting again. But we’re not and we’re not. Nothing we can do about that — except to continue, as long as we can, to get together at that Starbucks on glorious days — and share this “process” of getting old. I’m in town a few more days. There’s time for more coffee.