Don't Trust Old Men Wearing Hats

This is sort of a joke on myself because I have lived now to become the anachronism my father warned me about. Also, "Don't trust Anyone over 30!" which I lived until I turned 30 in 1978. But "Don't trust old men wearing hats because you never know what they are going to do if you are driving behind them." I now understand because I am now one of those old retired men (almost 64 in late April) which makes it all the funnier to me at this point.

I started out during the 60s thinking that the older generation had "Ruined the World". "They had done everything wrong and now they had ruined it for us young people to have any kind of future." Does this sound familiar to you? So I busied myself during my late teens and early 20s having nothing much to do with anyone over 30 who had sold us all out for what?

However, if you live long enough, you begin to realize that it is the world itself that is screwed and all any adult ever tried to do was to find a way to survive this mess. However, when you are young you can't usually see it this way which is actually the way it is and has always been. The problems of the world for the most part are just the harshness of what it is like to survive here on planet earth.

And like a sister-in law said, "There's one only kind of person. That is the person who chooses to survive in this world." This was her psychologist answer to my statement then of, "There are only two kinds of people, those who survive and those who don't". So I guess this was just another way of saying the same thing. Then there are women who refuse to see the world as it is and decide that it is much easier to blame all men for all the problems in the world. So, many women have and will do this since humankind has existed. And then there are the men who are unrealistic like this too. And then there are the men and women who are realists and because the harsh truth tends to make one want to commit suicide everyone needs some kind of fantasy to get through it all. So, some turn to religion, some turn to alcohol and some turn to other drugs. But one way or another everyone someday, somehow has to face the truth or have someone who is facing the truth and taking care of them. So, if you are young you might find yourself saying, "Don't trust anyone over 30." or "Don't trust old men wearing hats." However, if you live long enough you will likely first become one of the people over 30 that you don't trust and second if you are a man you might become "An old man who wears hats." And why do we wear hats? Because if we don't we get skin cancer on our faces. I always hated hats until I got a Squamish cell Carcinoma on my face and had to have it cut off in about 1995. I found this out right after we buried my aunt from a melanoma and my mother and I decided to see a dermatologist. Then I found that hats would keep me from getting those things on my face. So, if I'm outside I tend to wear a hat most of the time simply because "I don't want to die before my time."

note: A melanoma if not treated in 6 months  usually becomes fatal not too long after that but a squamish cell carcinoma or basil cell carcinoma has only about a 5% to 10 % chance of metastasizing like a melanoma always does within 6 months or so. So, if you see something weird on your skin and you don't have it checked don't be surprised if you are dying within 6 months of the first time you see it, unless you just don't care.

So, if you see an old man wearing a hat now you know he might not like hats at all and is just trying to stay alive.