Being 18 in old-time Phoenix


Lately I've been pondering my teenage years, especially when I was 18. No, that's not me in the pic up there, it's the most famous 18-year-old in Phoenix I could think of, Alice Cooper.

And no, I'm not an expert on Alice Cooper, so if you want to learn more about him, other than I know that he went to Cortez high school in Phoenix, you can Google him. The reason that he springs to my mind is his song "Eighteen". If you're not familiar with the song, here are some lyrics:

I got a baby's brain and an old man's heart,
Took eighteen years to get this far.
Don't always know what I'm talking about,
Feels like I'm living in the middle of doubt.

'Cause I'm eighteen!
I get confused every day.
Eighteen!
I just don't know what to say.
Eighteen!
I gotta get away.

I remember hearing this song as I approached eighteen, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And I knew that I had to get away. It took me a little bit longer than I had wanted, because by the time I got to Phoenix I was 19.

My old high school friends that I left behind have stayed perennially 18 in my mind, and it's a shock to see them as senior citizens, on Facebook. And if I've learned anything in a longish life, it's that no matter whether someone became rich and famous as they got older or not, they had to deal with eighteen.

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