The "Double-Nickels" Club

Irwin celebrated a milestone birthday this past Friday and he and I learned a phrase that had somehow escaped us thus far: Double Nickels.  Turning fifty-five, which we all know is the new forty-five, Irwin was welcomed into the “Double Nickels Club”, an honor we had no idea even existed.

We had just come to the realization that we were no longer “the kids”, and now, without a moment to digest our pre-geriatric status, Irwin was a confirmed “Double Nickels Club “ member and as if that were not enough to process, I will be following in his footsteps in six months. 

Life really does creep up on us.   We work and raise families, always pushing towards the next vacation, the next summer, the next level of success, the next milestone, when all the while life is moving forward.  Unlike the endless summers of our youth, the days quicken and the years pass and while you may have been considered the “kids” just a handful of years ago, you are now referring to your children as the kids and receiving Long Term Care mailings from AARP, to which you have been a card carrying member for a nickel’s worth of years.

But is this really such a bad thing?  While we might be longer in the tooth, we have attained years of life experience.  Being born smack dab in the middle of the ‘Boomer” Generation( 1955: A “double nickels” year), we have had the best of both worlds.  While we were taught the old fashioned way, with paper and pencil, were forced to do research with books in the library rather than on line and witnessed monumental historic events, we were still young enough to learn computers after Fortran and move from the Space Age into the fast paced virtual world we live in today.

That is probably why we love MCM furnishings so much.  It is not only because we are from the same period, which we are, but also because we share so many similar attributes.  Both of us were born in celebration of the new post-war era.  We were designed/raised with old world know-how and the belief that anything was possible. 

As pre-Sesame Streeters,  who grew up with The Beatles, The Jetsons, TV dinners and Lost in Space, we were not married to anything that came before us, and were open to almost anything new.  Although we were born only ten years after the end of WWII it seemed like ancient history even when we were still toddlers.  And because we had lived through so many turbulent events, we learned how to reinvent/re-purpose ourselves to suit ever-changing lifestyles.

We might be slightly marked like the Double Struck 1955 Lincoln Penny, but as in the case of the penny, it only increases our value.  Our imperfections, like those of our MCM counterparts serve as reminders that we are resilient survivors whose practicality and function are always in style.

Irwin & I were born in an amazing year- the one where the Dodgers beat the Yankees in the world series, Germany became a member of NATO, seat belt legislation was first introduced, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus AND...Disneyland opened!

So, cheers to  “Double Nickel “ club membership!  We wouldn’t want it any other way!