Familiar….

Comfy. Norm. Well known. I remember. Down this road before. All dat chit is familiar.

Oh yeah, I remember her, uh huh, I thought she looked familiar.

I think I’ve decided, that’s a great, great reason that it’s so very GD (gosh darn) hard to date at age fitty-something. Yes, we’re all – that age – familiar with John, George, Paul, Ringo….. JFK…. Joe Willie… Don’t change Dicks in the middle of a screw/vote for Nixon in ’72…

Familiar with that we are. Motown. CCR. CSN&Y… Laugh In.. Here’s Johnny…Green Acres is the place to be… Knot’s Landing.. Where oh where are you tonight – why did you leave me here all alone.. I’ve searched the world over and thought I’d found true love – you met another and ---pphhhhfppp – you were gone.

Unfamiliar. We did, lived, all that crap. (Crap said teasingly, I really mean wonderfully.) Article in morning paper by some chicky from LA – talking about music – and still how the 60’s music has never been challenged by any other decade. Hell yeah.

So we’ve all been thru that. Viet Nam… Woodstock.. Paul Harvey – the resta the story. Billy Graham.. Batman.. Alf.. Burt Reynolds. Goldie Hawn.. Familiar with that crap.

We’re familiar with the ones we’ve loved, grown up with – the streets we’ve ridden down – the stores we’ve been in. The direction we’re going.

HHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllttttt
WHO GOES THERE? I ain’t familiar with you – get the hell outta here. Oh sure, it’s said more nicely than that – but it happens… and I’ll be the first to admit I’ve been on both sidesa that.

Howinthehell do you make up for 50, 55 years of familiarity with a ‘new’ person? You don’t, can’t. We know all the same chit, we just didn’t share it along the way. Therefore – we’re ‘foreign.’ Thus, “ah, that’s a story for another day” is simply easier untold – trudge on, seek familiarity – but in the backa your mind you know you ain’t gonna find it.

I also think we’re all visual pigs. Only when we’re toe to toe with the GD mirror do we come to our senses and realize – “the old gray mare”.. But, we walk out that door, we try to find one to .. become familiar with.. and we think we’re like back in 1960-something, and we have’ta find one that looks like they did back then.. and that’s stupid as hell but it’s also common as hell.

I do believe we, in general, overestimate ourselves, and underestimate others. Not consciously, but I think we do. That said, I think we flit about at “78 speed” (see, know you’re fitty-something and you’re familiar with that.. we just ain’t been familiar with each other, why this chit won’t work at our age..or, ain’t working)… so we flit at 78, focusing on the visual when we should crank it down to AT LEAST 45, if not 33 and stop, smell roses (familiar smell?) and focus perhaps on what’s really more important.

Like sands thru the hourglass, so go the days of our lives. Sound familiar? So – insteada spending time, taking the time to become familiar with someone “new” – we turn our nose up (or have noses turned up at us) and think/say “nah, I ain’t familiar with you… sorry” and return to our sorryass sheltered worlds.

I say. Come get me. Familiar this. Familiar that. We can talk JFK, MLK, YMCA. You picka record, then I’ll pick one. We’re probably familiar with each. I know. A spin in the country. Developing a love, appreciation for the unfamiliar. (And yes, give us each a little time – perhaps thoughts would turn to “I’d sureashell like to get familiar with what’s under that top”.. VICTOR! sorry.. I’ll behave now. )

Anways, familiar is good. Thinka the newborn. Der ain’t shit he/she’s familiar with. Mebbe we should learn from that. Tales, stories, good times, remembrances – they form our familiarities. I vote – expand on that. Take a chance. Give it a whirl. Test the water. Sample the wine. Today’s events breed tomorrow’s familiarity.

It’s just so damn hard at age fitty-something. Happy day, Love, Victurd. (Sound familiar?)