Some years we alumni met with the fraternity, and one of us, above 50, started his speech with: "Now we sit here again and ask ourselves: Oh my God, have we ever been like these, and they sit here and ask themselves: Oh my God, shall we ever be like these?"
Naturally, he was right, and Jerry's question remembers me of this scene. We were young and daring once and had let nobody stop us at first, but when the shit hit the fan there always were some gentle older people who tried to straighten out the mess; they must have remembered that they were young sometimes, too. Thanks, old fellows, gone long ago.
In my youth I wrote a lot of poems and thought them well written. When 40 years of age, I read them again, put them ALL into an empty baby food can, lighted them and labeled the can "My Early Poems". My heirs will be astonished when they open it.
But I never want to miss those times. I tried, and tried hard; wouldn't I have started I'd never be what I am now.
So when I see and hear these young people annoying me I always ask myself: "Oh my God, have I ever been like these?" Unfortunately yes. But there is big consolation: They shall be like us in the end. Fortunately[?]