To Me, Walter Matthau Always Seemed Old...Until Yesterday

As we waited for this year's Super Bowl to begin, I did a little channel surfing. I stopped on a musical, the Gene Kelly-directed 1969 classic, Hello Dolly, staring Barbara Streisand and Walter Matthau.

I've not followed Matthau's career too seriously. Most people around my age know of his work, The Odd Couple, Charade, I.Q., Grumpy Old Men (and its sequel), and, of course, The Bad News Bears. Many of the shows I've seen him in were produced the 1970s and later, so whenever I saw him in a film or on TV, he always looked old to me. Even in Hello Dolly the man looked old, and that film was from the 1960s, if only barely.

So, as the music played and the actors sang and danced, I decided to look up Mr. Matthau on IMDb. It was then I realized something surprising.

Walter Matthau was born October 1, 1920 in New York as Walter Jake Matthow. I then did a little math. In 1969 when they filmed Hello Dolly, Walter Matthau was forty-nine-years old. So as I watched an older lead actor playing opposite a co-star twenty-two years his younger, it hit me. He was at least two years younger than I am now.

Ever since I turned about twenty-years old I've been told I look younger than I am. It still happens occasionally today. And since I've never been over fifty-years old before, I'm not really sure how it feels to be this old, or how I'm suppose to feel. But one thing I know. The man playing Mr. Horace Vandergelder in the musical we watched before watching Tom Brady orchestrate the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history looked a lot older than forty-nine.

I Turned 50 Today, And To Celebrate, Everybody Shopped...

It's not everyday you turn fifty-years old. But that's what happens when you keep eating and sleeping and have adequate shelter. Still, it's kind of a weird feeling, hitting fifty. 

I've written a couple of times this year about turning fifty-years old. I first blogged about it back in March of this year. I figured out exactly how old my father was when he passed away and I blogged on the day that I reached that mark. Surpassing the time my father lived was kind of a weird experience, too.



But today I turned a half a century. It's one of those plateaus that when you're young, it sounds SO old. I don't feel old--actually, that's not entirely true. I am very sore today because I ran/walked a few miles yesterday--something I haven't done in a long time. But normally, I don't feel the way I thought I'd feel when I got this age. Maybe it's just everyone else that's getting older.

There is one other aspect about hitting fifty and it's kind of a fun one for me. From the comments of others, I don't necessarily look as old as I am. I know some people look older than they actually are. I'm just the opposite. I have this theory that even though I've looked younger throughout the years, one day I'll wake up and look twenty years older. I'll have aged seemingly overnight. That may not happen, but I keep thinking it would be some sort of poetic justice.

So many friends have reached out to me today through social media and I'm so thankful for them and for my loving family and friends. They've not only made today special, but have affected my entire life. I am truly blessed. Thank you all.