Age Is A 4-Letter Word
My dad was an incredibly successful person, holding several high profile jobs during his career. Each time he would change his job, there was usually a formal announcement that followed. During the back half of his career, when the press release came out, one thing was always constant. He was 51 years old. When he really was 51, I was only 13, so all I really cared about was what city we were moving to and not how old he was. But after four or five job changes and his age remaining the same, I started catching on. Nothing gets by me, right? When I was finally old enough to understand what he was doing, my stepmother and I were sworn to secrecy about his true age. In fact, it got so bad that when he passed away nearly eight years ago at the age of 75 and somebody asked how old he was, I actually asked Barbara if it would be alright to tell the truth. My dad and I had a couple of conversations about why he hid his real age. I don’t remember the exact answer, but it had...