Next week I will have a banner birthday “55.” Everywhere I saw the signs that this was coming, literally. I live very near Highway 55; most speed limit signs are 55 and now I am receiving a number of mailings reminding me that I qualify for AARP and several “senior” discounts at the ripe old age of 55.
Did you know you can adopt a “senior” cat from Tri County Humane Society for FREE if you are 55 and older? Good information to have if I wanted to become a cat lady in my “old age.”
I have now celebrated two of my decade birthdays in the Annandale community, which is almost as many as I celebrated on the North Shore! Those first 20 years were filled with experiences and events that shaped me into who I am today.
Seriously I don’t mind being older…. I just don’t FEEL 55. (My sweetest friends tell me I don’t look THAT old. I bribe them with treats.) I remember being the child of 8 who told her mom “29” was ancient! (Sweet kid huh?) Turning 30 feels like yesterday.
This cute guy from the office came to my birthday party and made such an impression, I married him! I tease him that for my 39th birthday he bought me a house as we just celebrated our 16th year here in “Holthaus Haven.”
The night I had my 50th birthday party seems like just yesterday. I blinked and now I’m 55. The next blink will be 60 and so on… I need to start keeping my eyes wide open. I don’t want to miss a thing.
I have a dear friend who is 93. She still teaches English three days a week. She works out every day at 5 a.m. and can beat me at cards, sometimes. That’s my goal…to be kicking butt and taking names at 93.
I met a lovely woman in Annandale who told me about the Ten-Year Journal. It’s a beautiful book that you write a few short sentences about what happened each day. The cool thing is that the notes from the years before are all on the same page. When you fill it in you can see exactly what you were doing last year on this day.
I am surprised all the time by the thought, oh my goodness, that was a year ago already? I like to give them to friends and especially graduating students. To think you can start a journal at 18 and have it end at 28…. all the life changes that happen in those 10 years are amazing.
The next thing they know they will be 55.
“Gonna write me up a 125,
Post my face wanted dead or alive,
Take my license, all that jive I. Can’t. Drive. 55! Oh No!”
~ Sammy Hagar, favorite song this year.
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives on a farm in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of home-style recipes.
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