Just celebrated my birthday but I’m at the age when they ain’t much celebrating...I’m surprised I’ve made it this far...I don’t see much good in the future anymore...at my age, there ain’t a hell of a lot to look forward to...not like when you’re 12 and dying to become a badass teenager, even though at 13 you’re still just a punk...looking forward to being 16 and getting a driver’s license...I got mine on my birthday when it was about 30 degrees and it was snowing sideways...drove my Impala Chevy to the levy...the old guy who tested me thought I was nuts for wanting to drive that day...but I wanted my damn license, so I made him go...and I got it...then sat around watching the snow pile up the next couple of days and being unable to go out and drive in it...but I had to get my license on the first day possible because...because it was the first damn day possible I guess...yeah, turning 18...now I can buy smokes legally...except I never smoked so that didn’t make no damn difference...I could join the Army or Navy if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to...I don’t take orders from nobody...especially some damn person in a uniform with short hair...I never trusted short hair and still don’t...I have been in an Army-Navy surplus store and bought a nice Army jacket that I wore everyday to school like all the cool kids did back then...I still got it in the closet but it don’t fit anymore...must of shrunk some, even though I never washed it...21 for sure seemed to be the one, it seemed the right age for having fun...that’s for sure...now I can go and get my own liquor and nobody could say a damn thing about it...my first purchase was some Olympia beer...don’t know why the hell I bought that, but I did...21 was alright but now I felt responsible for the first time...don’t know if I liked that or not...after that, birthdays didn’t matter anymore really...you’re just getting older...you just keep living...now I live my life from day to day, play by play, hey hey...you’re not reaching a milestone that lets you do stuff you couldn’t do before...you get to a point where you can’t do things anymore that you used to do...when my daughter was 17 she said if she was gonna commit a crime, she’s better do it now before she turned 18...hahahahaha...what a sense of humor...good thinking though...you can get away with some things because you’re still a minor...like throwing snowballs at cars, and stealing purses out of the cafeteria gym...if you get caught...hey, you’re just a kid...you didn’t know better...wink wink...I gotta go back to the surplus store...I’m lookin’ for some green army pants because sometimes you just don’t feel like wearing jeans...it also creeps some people out if they see you wearing that and an Army hat...they must think “That guy don’t look like he’s in the Army...maybe he’s carrying some kind of weapon in that backpack...I better leave quick”...a lot of guys my age wear Hawaiian shirts...oh sorry, Aloha shirts...and a baseball cap...and some nice shiny white athletic shoes...not me...Army hat, Army pants, Army boots...and don’t look at me funny either.
