When the big game begins in a few hours, I’ll think back to Sunday, January 17, 1971. I clearly remember going to Mass that day. The pastor read the Gospel, gave an unexpectedly fast homily, and said, “The Super Bowl starts in two hours. Go Cowboys.” The Colts beat our hometown team that day – in a game that featured 12 players who would later be inducted into the Hall of Fame, including quarterbacks Johnny Unitas and Roger Staubach.
Less than four years earlier – a few months after Super Bowl I – the Beatles released “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” which included one of my favorite songs by the Fab Four:
When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I’d been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I’m sixty-four?
So here I am. Staring down my 64th birthday. Hair still full. Don’t drink. Haven’t seen quarter till three in decades. These days, years fly by a lot quicker than when I was a kid. While the fourth quarter is underway, I still see myself much younger… not even to halftime.
Perhaps that’s mental gymnastics. Perhaps it’s naïve. Perhaps it’s crazy. I prefer to believe it’s having a wife who still gives me birthday greetings, kids who open their door to me with a smile and hug, and – especially – being able to recall moments from 50+ years ago.
