Ronn Mott
Special to the Tribune-Star
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Our aging process through life is marked by many milestones. There’s birth, grade school, then high school, and on to college. There’s marriage, that first child, and then your first grandchild.
I ran into another one the other day when I paid my bill at the drugstore. The nice lady behind the counter said, “Thank you, Sweetie,” and then a couple of days later the same thing, ”Thank you, Sweetie.” Then it hit me like a ton of bricks … another milestone! It was a verbal pat on the head.
When I was a little boy between the ages of two and those teenage years, I took it as a sign of approval. Perhaps I was even considered cute. Now I have passed over the pale from cute to old and ladies are still calling me “Sweetie.” Of course, they don’t know me; if they did, they would know I’m an old grouch.
There are two time frames in a man’s life when you can call him “Sweetie” and not have it confused with a flirty, perhaps sexual, connotation. And those times are when he’s very young and the other is when he’s very old. Geez, I hate to think I’ve passed the pale of being too old!
Just too old. Wow!
Ronn Mott, a longtime radio personality in Terre Haute, writes commentaries for the Tribune-Star. His pieces are published online Tuesday and Thursday on Tribstar.com, and in the print and online editions on Saturday.
