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" (This Side Glances\u00A0originally appeared in the November, 1998 issue of\u00A0Road &amp;amp;amp; Track)  Realization of creeping age\u00A0comes slowly upon some of us and\u00A0suddenly upon others. In my case, all\u00A0knowledge and insight, such as it is,\u00A0come in the form of ambush. For instance, I remember a defining moment about 10 years ago when I was waiting\u00A0to board a\u00A0plane to Europe and noticed for\u00A0the first time ever that the entire flight crew, including captain and co-pilot, were\u00A0younger than I. Could these youths be trusted with a great big 747? I wasn&amp;#039;t sure. Earlier that same week, I&amp;#039;d gone to a dermatologist to have a small spot on my arm examined and the doctor had asked if I&amp;#039;d been exposed to a lot of sun at some time in my life. &amp;quot;In Vietnam,&amp;quot; I\u00A0said. &amp;quot;Gosh,&amp;quot; he replied, &amp;quot;You were there? I had an uncle who was in Vietnam when I was a kid.&amp;quot; Yikes! I thought. How is it possible that all\u00A0these former authority figures, the gray eminences\u00A0of my youth, have been transformed\u00A0into fresh-faced youngsters who were riding\u00A0tricycles and watching Sesame Street when I was out doing\u00A0adult stuff, like\u00A0drinking hard liquor\u00A0in bars and smoking\u00A0Lucky Strikes in seedy Asian dives with immoral\u2014or at least highly improbable\u2014floor shows? Since then, of course,\u00A0I&amp;#039;ve gotten used to it.\u00A0I turned 50 this year\u00A0and virtually every authority figure I meet these days is younger than I am\u2013lawyers, doctors, nurses, priests, airline pilots, bartenders, etc.\u00A0Worse yet, I&amp;#039;m almost\u00A0as old as the President of the United States.\u00A0When Ike was in power, this never would\u00A0have been allowed to happen. Still another wake-up call came last month,\u00A0when Editor-in-Chief\u00A0Tom Bryant asked me\u00A0to do a Salon article on a 1968 Dino 206GT.\u00A0 I have been accustomed, until now, to\u00A0reading about or researching Salon cars that\u00A0go back to the dimmest beginnings of childhood memory, or well before, but here, at\u00A0last, was a car that came along four years after\u00A0I&amp;#039;d received my own driver&amp;#039;s license and a\u00A0full seven years after I had started reading\u00A0Road &amp;amp;amp; Track. I was a sophomore in college\u00A0when the Dino 206 GT was introduced, and\u00A0I read about it and lusted after both the 206\u00A0and the 246 Dino within what seems like\u00A0quite recent memory. In other words, I don&amp;#039;t even consider it an\u00A0old car! It came along just yesterday, and I\u00A0am still wondering if I should be interested\u00A0in buying one or if it&amp;#039;s too modern.\u00A0 As Kurt Vonnegut (that recently successful\u00A0young author) would say,\u00A0&amp;quot;So it goes.&amp;quot; And goes. And goes. Since this most recent jolt,\u00A0I&amp;#039;ve noticed any number of similar automotive reminders of advancing age\u00A0and thought I would\u00A0mention them so that\u00A0any R&amp;amp;amp;T readers\u00A0who are in doubt\u00A0about their\u00A0relative youth or decrepitude might be able to to determine upon which side of the young/old age line they currently reside. For your consideration, a few other telltale automotive warning signs of advancing age: 1.\u00A0You own an original red and gray\u00A0Craftsman toolbox from the era before\u00A0they switched to all-red boxes, then\u00A0back to traditional red and gray again.     2. You are still miffed at the MG car company for dropping those tall, elegant\u00A0wire TC wheels in favor\u00A0of smaller stamped-steel wheels when they introduced the MG-TD.\u00A0 3. A Ford or Mercury flathead is still the only V8 that looks &amp;quot;correct&amp;quot; in a hot rod. 4.You have been paying only partial and desultory attention to Formula 1 racing since the teams quit painting their cars in national racing colors.\u00A0 5. On your bookshelf is an open-face Bell 500TX helmet you wore in your first year of sports-car racing, just before the full-face Bell Star became fashionable and replaced it.\u00A0 6.\u00A0After cheering the demise of the tra\u00ADditional Offy-powered Indy roadster at the hands of mid-engine European cars, you are starting to have second thoughts. Also, you wish Parnelli Jones and A.J. Foyt were still driving them somewhere so you could go watch.\u00A0 7. Your attendance at midget and sprint-car races has been irregular since they added wings and/or full roll cages.\u00A0 8. When somebody says &amp;quot;Graham Hill&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Jo Bonnier,&amp;quot; you can instantly picture what they looked like and which cars they drove, yet you cannot summon up a distinct and lasting mental image of, say, Giancarlo Fisichella, or his current ride, even though you just saw them on TV yesterday.\u00A0 9. You were actually driving and listening to the radio in your own car (or driving your parents&amp;#039;\u00A0car) when you first heard the word &amp;quot;Beatles&amp;quot; spoken.\u00A0 10. The Snap-On tool man just re\u00ADplaced, free of charge, the second flex-head ratchet you have worn out in your lifetime.\u00A0 11. You can remember when stock-car racing was somehow vaguely connect\u00ADed to actual stock automobiles made in Detroit. Also, strangely enough, you were more interested in which brand of car won the race than you are now.\u00A0 12. You attended at least one Grand Prix at which no one shoved a spon\u00ADsor&amp;#039;s cap onto the winner&amp;#039;s head.\u00A0 13. You&amp;#039;ve attended a race at which the victors actually drank the champagne they were offered rather than spraying it all over everybody.\u00A0 14. You have never forgiven the federal\u00A0government for headlights on the Jaguar E-Type.\u00A0 15. You first suspected the SCCA was switching irrevocably onto the wrong track when they forbade wood-rimmed steering wheels in competition cars.\u00A0 16. You really can remember when race drivers were fat and tires were skinny. And now you are fat.\u00A0 17. You have quietly resolved that if Road America puts up just one more catch fence or safety barrier between the spectators and the track, or cuts down one more shade tree, you will take up another hobby. Perhaps.\u00A0 18. You actually know a person who drove his or her Production-class competition sports car to the track.\u00A0 19. You took your first racing photos with a Pentax HI-A, a Rolleiflex or a Leica, using a Gossen Super Pilot hand-held light meter and Tri-X film, pushed to fashionable and dramatic graininess in the darkroom with Microdol-X developer and overblown en\u00ADlargement on the Omega or less expensive Durst. Your color slides are all on Kodachrome.\u00A0 20. You have steadfastly refused to work on any of your wife&amp;#039;s cars since the invention of\u00A0the &amp;quot;brain box.&amp;quot;    21. You have attended at least one road race, such as the Targa Florio, that was actually held on a road.\u00A0 22. You can remember when drivers who were afraid to race on long, dan\u00ADgerous courses such as the old Nurburgring responded by taking up some other sport rather than changing the track into a safer, duller facility about which no one gives a hoot. 23. Your parents allowed you to sleep on the back window ledge of a 1956 Buick when the family took a trip.\u00A0 24. You can clearly remember your first family car equipped with seat\u00AD belts. Front only. 25. You spent\u2014or considered spend\u00ADing\u2014all or part of your accumulated military combat pay on European de\u00ADlivery of a new Triumph Spitfire or Porsche 914. 26. Your first English sports car, built in the Forties or Fifties, had exactly the same weather protection (and technical sophistication) as an Ameri\u00ADcan car built in 1914, but was lower to the ground. 27. Your older sister, who would not let you stick your foot or hand across the middle of the back seat of your parents&amp;#039; 1956 Buick, has, inexplicably, turned into a decent human being and is currently shopping for a Miata. 28. You learned to drive in a car with a &amp;quot;3-on-the-tree&amp;quot; column shifter. Also, you drove in such a car on all your high school dates, learning the &amp;quot;crossover&amp;quot; technique in which you reached across and shifted left-handed so you didn&amp;#039;t have to take your right arm off your girlfriend&amp;#039;s shoulder. 29. When you were in high school, there were four major brands of French cars sold in the U.S., all but Simca sub\u00ADject to colorful mispronunciation.\u00A0 30. The Nomex driver&amp;#039;s suit you wore in your first season of racing now looks small enough to fit a child, or a medium-size ventriloquist&amp;#039;s dummy, such as Charlie McCarthy.\u00A0 31. You remember Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy quite clearly. Also Mortimer Snerd. 32. At racetracks and car shows, you sometimes hide behind tents and trail\u00ADers to avoid making introductions be\u00ADtween long-time acquaintances, col\u00ADleagues and friends whose names you have suddenly forgotten. This is what my old pal what&amp;#039;s-his-name from Cal\u00ADifornia calls &amp;quot;a senior moment.&amp;quot; I hope these warning signs help erase any doubt about the reader&amp;#039;s relative place in the great parade of humanity marching toward its golden years. Welcome to AARP.\u00A0 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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