The last three decades have gone by too quickly

By Lethbridge Herald on September 24, 2022.

LEAVE IT TO BEEBER
Al Beeber
Lethbridge Herald

Three days ago my only child turned 30. As dawn breaks today, I’m still trying to figure out how three decades passed so quickly. One day I was holding my little preemie in my arms and facing immediate death by suggesting in jest we name him after my favourite hockey player, Wendell Clark.

Instead I’m waiting for Rio to cross the rainbow bridge so I can name the next dog after the retired Leaf great. 

But thanks to injections for his arthritis which have perked him right up, Rio hopefully will be around for a few more years to come. Which should give me time to change my mind. And to get over my new fixation with a dog called a pom-sky, a cross between a pomeranian and a husky which I’d never heard of before until a recent evening walk.

This week, my thoughts have been on Dylan and how fast life has gone by. 

Like many parents, I will always feel guilty for not spending enough time with him when he was young. 

I should have taken him fishing to Ontario so he could see the place I still consider to be home.

I should have bought him a motorcycle – on second thought, that didn’t work out so well when I bought one for me.

 I should have taught him about the joys of camping although he might remember my outdoors skills when I threw a little gasoline on a fire one time and my arm hairs burst into flame. Maybe he didn’t miss much after all.

But I do have a lot of regrets that will be with me until the day I take my last breath. I know I’m not alone in that feeling because of discussions I had with my own dad when he opened up to me in the last years of his life. Dad felt horrible for missing time with my brother and I as we grew up. Dad had a lot of issues, as I’ve written about before, and he was regularly on call with his job at Calgary Power.

 Being a social kid, I’m not sure if I would have had time for him between road hockey and all the other stuff we did.

 I’m trying to live by an adage I read recently that the past and future only exist in our minds and we need to leave both out of our minds.

I think it’s important to focus on that adage because guilt is an absolute killer. We can make all the amends in the world to the people we’ve harmed but there comes a point in all our lives we need to try forgiving ourselves. Like the time in Cardston I nailed Mrs. Marsden in the butt with a slingshot when she was hanging laundry one summer day. If I’d had that accuracy in Air Cadets I could have been sniper material.

So keeping in mind the past no longer exists, I’m enjoying the present with Dylan when I occasionally see him which isn’t often since we work different hours. I’m also looking forward to whatever the future holds for Dylan who at 30 is the man we should all try to emulate – kind, caring, and considerate.

 Trying to figure out how time has flown so quickly is a waste of time but I did a little research to see what was happening those decades ago.

1992 was an eventful year, the last few months I spent joyfully holding my baby boy in my arms every chance I got. 

I quit the Herald hockey team so I could spend precious weekend time with him and cut back on my daily trips to the gym. 

I ended up ballooning to a whopping 256 lbs a few months later but after being diagnosed with asthma and hearing from gym buds about how to abuse an inhaler to lower appetite and increase metabolism, my weight loss program started in earnest. 

Within two years, I’d dropped to 128 and was so skinny when I returned to the hockey team, the guys begged me to leave my shirt on in the dressing room. But that’s fodder for another column maybe.

In 1992, Bill Clinton was elected president of the United States and the Los Angeles riots occurred when four white police officers were acquitted of beating a black man named Rodney King, those riots which had many of us riveted to CNN.

1992 was the year now King Charles and Princess Diana separated and South Africa ended apartheid.

It was the year mob boss John Gotti, the so-called Teflon Don, was sentenced to life in prison. I didn’t have to do research to remember The Leafs didn’t win the Stanley Cup in 1992. I do remember watching them win on a black-and-white TV in 1967, though.

Now common, the nicotine patch was first introduced in 1992 to help smokers quit the habit.

Canada’s prime minister was Brian Mulroney while Don Getty was the premier of Alberta until being succeeded by Ralph Klein later that year.

On Jan. 22 of  1992, Roberta Bondar became the first Canadian woman in space. In October, the ban on homosexuals in the Canadian military was lifted. On Dec. 17, Mulroney signed the NAFTA free trade pact.

Among the biggest films of the year were “Aladdin,” “Sister Act,” “The Bodyguard” – which I know just left you with an ear worm – “Basic Instinct and “Reservoir Dogs,” which is a classic that sometimes reappears on Hollywood Suite.

I can tell you that Dylan’s favourite from his early years was Disney’s “Fox and The Hound,” which we watched day in and day out. I still love that film. 

And what parent can’t forget the torture of watching “Maya the Bee” on television? Another parent’s horror came in purple so don’t get me started on “Barney.” Just don’t go there.

Billboard’s list of Hot 100 singles in 1992 included – besides tunes I don’t remember which is a lot of them – “End of the Road” by Boyz II Men, “Jump,” by Kriss Kross, “Just Another Day” by Jon Secada and two I do know – Tom Cochrane’s “Life is a Highway” and Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain.” 

Oh yeah, Billy Ray Cyrus made the list with “Achy Breaky Heart.” Those are seriously among the few I recognize on the list aside from maybe Hammer’s “2 Legit 2 Quit.” Some old-timers think music is bad now but 30 years ago it was nothing to write home about either.

Popular Canadian artists that year included The Tragically Hip – of course, Sloan, The Watchmen, Alanis, Blue Rodeo. Barenaked Ladies, 54-40, the Cowboy Junkies and The Northern Pikes.

In sports, the Toronto Blue Jays won their first World Series and the Ottawa Senators hit the ice as a new NHL team.

I remember filling in for the late, great Pat Sullivan during the Blue Jays playoff run, coming to the office at 2 a.m. to lay out pages since the Herald was still delivered in the afternoon. 

That series win over the Atlanta Braves was a sports moment I’ll never forget.

Motor Trend’s Car of the year in 1992 was Cadillac’s Seville Touring Sedan while its truck honour went to Ford’s Chateau Club Wagon.

1992 was quite the year but hopefully the next year and every year to follow will be as memorable as well for Dylan and all the others who reach the 30-year-old milestone this year.

When I turned 30, I felt old so I did some heavy lifting in the gym and ended up in emergency with a torn rotator cuff. Then I’m pretty sure I hit the bar with buds to slam beers and brag since gym injuries were a badge of honour in my day.

I’m sure Dylan is wiser than that. Much wiser. 30 is young and he all the others who were born in 1992 have their lifetimes to make memories they will perhaps write down for their own children.

Wonder if he wants to play some South Park video games or Duke Nukem this weekend for old time sake.

Good times!

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