Shinybass Journal Entry 12/08/2025

The power of 55. 

I was born on Pearl Harbor Day. For this reason, I will always have a connection to WWII, but something else in me made me really want to study and appreciate this era. Hollywood played this war perfectly; men wanted to be Audie Murphy and women wanted to hold on to aviator scarves until their heroes returned home. (No recruitment ploy here at all…) Not saying flying the plane into the front yard to reunite with someone didn’t happen, but war really isn’t romantic, nor is it fun. 

And what better war to pump up than WWII? It had all the ‘things’: awesome airplane designs, great songs, and what’s more romantic than a little European bar where officers can hang out? South Pacific Tiki huts! But let’s look at other conflicts. WWI – Eh. Trench warfare and mustard gas makes for a tough love picture. Korea, Vietnam, etc, etc – the amount of uncertainty in exactly who we were fighting or the reason for the war makes those tough to be romantic. At our core, humans will fight. Humans like to come home, That in itself is romantic enough. 

My Dad educated me early on about aviation, and he loved WWII movies. Saturdays were cartoons for the kids in the AM, and probably a war movie of some kind in the afternoon. I learned a lot about war this way early on. When I was little I had to be told that life was always in color and not black and white like the old movies. 

As I got older, I had to get out and see some of this stuff for myself. When I was on a tour bus more times than home, I always roamed. My favorite days were always ones when I could visit air museums. I tried to seek as many as possible while I was ‘out there’. There are only a handful of bucket list ones I haven’t seen (yet). We’ll get there. 

Quite a few times I have been lucky (or unlucky) enough to be on the road for my birthday. One year we visited Area 51 (ok, we made it to the back gate), and one year I was sick as a dog in my bunk for most of the day in a terrible 24 hours in Ohio. Another time I spent my birthday in Milwaukee, and THAT was pretty special (no, really – it was a 3 day food/wine blur). A few years back I was a short drive from Tillamook, Oregon on December 7, so I found two willing participants from our tour, and we took a rental car to a big dirigible hangar in the middle of nowhere. 

It’s December in Oregon. It’s cold. The hangar has no heat. It’s December in Oregon. It’s raining. I didn’t care. We had airplanes and eventually a beautiful waterfall to discover. The drive was probably 45 minutes, and a few more to get to the waterfall, which was an unplanned stop. I didn’t care. 

I have always liked exploring what’s out there, and I have been lucky to do it while playing music. Its been a tremendous gift. I am asked if I miss the road. I don’t miss being away from home, but I do miss seeing new things every day. Now I have to plan and take family trips, and I will say my two kids are much easier to keep happy and occupied than a bunch of grumpy musicians. 

Now, it is my birthday week. I am 55. I am not ashamed to say it. I did feel it this morning, however, when I received an email FIRST THING for Senior Bingo night. I am not making this up. I mean, the ink isn’t even dry on the damn second 5, people. And AARP, I’ll sign up if you want to send a better gift. I’m not going to use a tote. I WILL use a Visor CD case and rock like it’s 1995. Make that happen! 

I’m certainly not slowing down. I am doing all the things. My message to all – musicians or otherwise – is the get out. Go do it, whatever it is. Musicians, you have been given a tremendous gift; not just to play music, but to get off the bus in a completely different town and see what you can see. Go to sleep at a reasonable hour, get up and do the thing. ‘It’s too much trouble’, ‘It’s too expensive’, ‘I’m hungover’. How much trouble is it to get there after you get home? A lot. How expensive is it? Even more. And you are grown up. Make good choices. 

I may be wired differently than most. No apologies. You may not care about anything other than your four walls or the friendly confines of your hotel room (that probably looks like every other hotel room). Watching TV for 4 hours on a day off is like brain torture. You won’t remember flipping channels, but you’ll remember the cool stuff you walked around and experienced. I’m telling you, one day the train will stop rolling, and opportunities may not pop up again. Choose wisely. 

So let’s get back to me – it IS my birthday. 55. It’s a square pyramidal number and the sum of the first 5 squares. It is also the 10th number of the Fibonacci sequence and triangular numbers. Fun, right? According to my quick search, repeating numbers (such as 55) also signify change, transformation, and good luck. In the Bible, 5 signifies grace, so 55 doubles it! Can’t wait for when I’m 555 years old! Grace for all my peoples! 

What does 55 mean to ME? Not the mathematicians, the poets, the scholars. Me. Well, 55 means nothing, really. I’m still young enough to dance really badly, and old enough that I don’t care. Does that count for something? I have no problem with any of this age stuff. I appreciate the value of a land line. I like the smell of old cars. I also know that one day, sooner than later, I’ll be the old guy at the end of the lunch counter with decades of incredible stories to share with the poor patron that happens to sit next to me. 

And do you know how I got all of those stories? I went out and found them. 

See you on the road!