I'm now a Beatles song

My birthday is coming around this week. Usually, I try to hide when birthdays happen. Birthdays are just marking time — the passage of time, actually — and I really don't need reminders like that. It's not about vanity. It's about weariness. And maybe a sigh.

And this particular birthday isn't even a milestone.

But, then again, it is.

It's my 64th birthday. When I'm 64. For many people of my generation, this really is a milestone. I'm a Beatles song.

Back in 1967, when I first heard that catchy little tune that sounded more vaudevillian than pop rock and maybe — or maybe not — misplaced on the groundbreaking Sgt. Pepper album, I was 16. Sixty-four seemed so far away, in somebody else's lifetime. Hells bells, my parents weren't even 64 back then. We all had a ways to go.

Then I blinked.

Now here I am.

"When I get older, losing my hair
Many years from now"

Uh-oh. I did get bald...

"Would you still be sending me a Valentine
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine"

Thursday is my birthday, Valentine's is Saturday, and Kim and I will probably sip a toast...

"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"

I can't tell you how much I depend on Kim...

"You'll be older too, "

Kim's birthday is Wednesday. Sheesh.

Anyway, back in 1967, it never occurred to me that I would get here one day. Who'd of thought?

It all kind of makes me yearn for another Beatles tune:

Yesterday....