Growing old...is getting old.

I awoke this morning and realized I’m still 45 years old, ugly, broke & talentless. It was humbling. My bones and joints cracked & complained, sounding like a popcorn popper. It’s good I no longer drink or my head would hurt just as much as my body & ego. I made it to the kitchen, poured some coffee & motrin down my gullet and contemplated my day. I think about all the other ‘old school’ rats out there & wonder if their mornings are anything like mine.

I notice that little in life brings pleasure &  eating is a monotonous chore that must be done. There is unending  work, dreariness, hip hop and depression that comes in an onslaught from every side. Everyone has their hand out for a freebie these days. The bills are building up. My mind is broken like my body. Why can’t it be like it was? Remember, when  ‘Skateboard World’, ‘Action Now’ & others came out monthly? My God!

Music pulsed and hammered at the skatepark…Devo, The Buzzcocks, X, Black Flag, UK Subs, The Exploited…..Fuck! Now, its unending ear misery for me….I want to shoot something. When I hear the words, “hip hop”, I reach for my revolver!

I remember the photographs of Freidman, Stecyk, Goodrich, Stan & William Sharp, King James Cassimus, Tedd Terrebone & others. Those photographs were all I had back in Pennsylvania…snowed in half the year with old people everywhere & even older ways. I am happy I lived through such an epic era in skateboarding though. All I have done has made me what I am. A broken, old, roundwall skateboarder. I probably wouldn’t trade that for all the whiskey in Ireland! Here’s a photograph of  Craig Johnson in 1989 that will bring back memories. Special thanks to JGrant Brittain for this gem. Skate Strong-Ozzie