upon entering the fifth decade

"Kentucky Woman" is one of my favorite songs. Listening to it now for the first time in a very long time made me realize how fucking old I have become. Beats the alternative, I guess.

I used to listen to this song and play volleyball in the pit, drink beer, come back, occasionally assume my station ("stations everyone! stations!") and listen to "Solitary Man". We would all joke and sing "Solid, hairy man" instead, in reference to a short, swarthy and hirsute roommate we once knew. I would cut my comrades' hair on the patio. I was an amateur barber before a surgeon, upholding the tradition of the medieval barber-surgeons. (Really?)

At Christmas, most people had a "Yule Log". It was a Colonial institute, with heartfelt traditions. We sported a "Mule Log" instead, and I carried it on my strong, young back, as I used to be able to carry a keg of beer on my back when the occasion called for it. Now, I am shorter, fatter and substantially less strong. Back then, I would've looked at the current me, and assumed without reservation that I was a homosexual. There is not a chance in Hell I could put a keg on my back and lift it as I once did without having a substantial scrotal blowout.

I have lived long enough to see many of the songs/popular culture that I enjoyed when I was younger get remade, synthesized and incorporated into the current non-stop stream of crap we all wallow in now. "Girl, you'll be a woman soon" is only a splinter of an example.

My platoon (Monkey Platoon, Clown Squad) have all taken the mundane and predictable path of reproduction and are mere shadows of the men they once were. Much like the shadow of a strong man-boy with a keg of beer on his shoulder, as if in defiance of gravity itself. Bare-chested queer-bait. Aside from waning health and the also predictable breakdown of the body over the next decade or two, what does the next phase hold for these once healthy, vibrant, fun-loving lads who held the world by the throat twenty years ago?