Things you think about when you are turning 50

On July 17th, 1959, a little baby boy was born to Willis and Evelyn Van Dyke in Roundup Memorial Hospital. He joined two brothers, Gene and Randy, and two sisters, Janet and Susan, in the family home.

It's hard to believe, but all of us were much younger back then. For instance, my 88-year-old father was only 38. My 61-year-old brother was 11 and so on.

It seems like life begins innocently enough...but gets tougher as you get older. Last Monday, for instance, I started having severe pain in right hip flexor -- even though I try to do no manual labor that would cause me to strain anything. I had a hard time lacing my right shoe because I couldn't move my right foot up so I could reach my shoe. Walking up stairs was also painful....and I thought, "it this what I've waited 50 years for?"

Luckily, within three days, the pain went away and I was able to play a pretty good game of golf on Thursday in the Lignite Energy Council's golf tournament at Apple Creek.

On August 24, I go in for my first colonoscopy. I guess it's one of the things you do when you turn 50. At breakfast today with a lot of people who have already turned 60, they told me that the procedure is a "walk in the park" and not to worry. The only hard part is drinking three gallons of liquid the day before and staying up all night as the liquid colon cleaner scrubs out your insides.

I was also delighted with my doctor when I had my physical this past July. He told me that I was officially middled age and that "even people who take care of themselves will some times die for no reason at 50."

Great, that's what I wanted to hear....serves me right for going to a doctor who just turned 40.

The cards I got were great also. One of them said that I shouldn't consider myself middle-aged at 50 as that was really at 35. Now there's a cheery thought.

I also went golfing one night about a week ago with my father riding in the cart beside me. We were in a three-some with Scott and his friend Jake. I had a pretty good golf game going and actually was beating Scott, until we reached the ninth hole and my dad told me in no uncertain terms that he needed to get home and use the bathroom right away. So we picked up my drive, waved goodbye to Scott and Jake and headed home.

Secretly, I was a littled miffed with dad, but the next day on the course, all was forgiven. I left dad at home as I didn't want his bowels interupting my golf game again. However, I must have had the revenge of Willis (similar to the revenge of Montezuma) as I was golfing with stomach cramps for the first five holes until I came upon the port-a-potties, which were simmering in the summer sunshine at a little over 150 degrees inside temperature. But beggers and crampers can't be picky.

Also at 50, I'm feeling like I know a lot more about life in general. I can see someone's face and feel as though I know their most inner thoughts. I really can't. Some people look happy when they're sad and vice versa. But that doesn't stop me from boring people I'm sitting with and telling them some made-up story about what other people may or may not actually be thinking.

Finally, I've decided that 50 is the "me" decade. I hope that Belinda and I can travel more and do the things that we like to do. We got this off to a good start by going to Medora this month and seeing the musical before heading to Roundup for the family reunion.

So here's to 50....and then 60, etc.