Today in history

On this date in history:

• One hundred and 70 years ago today, President Zachary Taylor died after just 16 months in office.
• 86 years ago, Donald Duck made his theatrical debut with Wise Little Hen.
• Seventy-five years ago today, 1.5 million people in Los Angeles watched a victory parade for George S. Paton and James Doolittle.
• Seventy years ago today, B. Jay Cooper was born in Waterbury, Conn.
• Fifty years ago today …

Wait, what? Seventy years ago who was born?

Yes, today is my 70th birthday. Birthdays with 0’s were never huge for me. If I turned one of the zeroes — 20, 30, 40, etc. — didn’t bother me much. For me it was the “5” years. Twenty-five seemed like you were accepting the label “adult” which separated you from the social activity of going to bars with your friends, or playing pool in the pool halls.

Was the same for 35, 45, different milestones but milestones just the same. Forty? No biggie. Sixty, again, no biggie.

But 70! Damn. As a former newspaper reporter, I’ve been a reader of obits which are important to the family and not as easy to research and write as one might think. I also, of course, wanted to trace passing of folks who were friends, celebrities. At 70 you start noticing a lot of people are passing of natural causes who are younger than you. That’s unsettling.