I am officially a curmudgeon.

[trof]

Or a geezer.
Or a humorless old man.
Or something.
I'm 63.
And a half.
My sense of "fun" has changed quite a lot since I was in my 20s and 30s.

I discovered that at a Mardi Gras parade today.
I felt like such a stick-in-the-mud for not accompanying Miz t. and friends to parades last week, so today I went. There was another couple and a stag lady friend. We're all in our 60s.

The parade was in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Thirty minutes before parade time (10 a.m.) we found a good spot in a restaurant parking lot and set up our folding chairs streetside.
It began to drizzle. In a few minutes the drizzle became rain. I went to the car for the two umbrellas I keep in the back. Gave them to the four parade addicts, said "See ya", and returned to the car. Boy, this is fun.

I sat in the car, listening to the radio, for about half an hour. Just as the beginning of the parade reached us, the overcast lightened a bit, and the rain fizzled down to a very light mist. I walked back to the group. It had been a blowing rain, and they were soaked from the waists down. Dripping. I just don't get it.

So I'm standing there, and the floats are passing by, my wife and friends are jumping up and down and screaming"HEY MISTER! THROW ME SOMETHING! BEADS! BEADS! BEADS! MOON PIE! MOON PIE!". I was greatly relieved that Miz t. didn't lift her shirt and "show boobs".

So I'm standing a few feet behind them, watching them go nuts with this thing, and if a string of beads is gonna whap me in the head I catch them. Purely a defensive maneuver. They're down scrabbling in the street, picking up the stuff they couldn't catch on the fly, and I'm thinking "What in the hell am I doing here? I'm a f*cking grown man...strike that...I'm beyond a 'grown man', I'm a "senior citizen", a bleeding geezer. I don't give a ratzass about this and how could they?"

I dunno.
I guess I've lost my sense of...what? The ridiculous? No, I still have a great sense of the ridiculous. The current administration is a case in point. That's ridiculous. A sense of childish wonder? Childish enthusiasm? Childish glee at getting cheap doo-dads FREE?

I think I'd enjoy a parade with some little kids in tow. Watching them would be fun. But a bunch of senior citizens going ape over this just is beyond me.
:shrug: