Today marks a milestone birthday for me. Last year at this time I was belting out When I’m 64 with the best of them. This year I’m moaning about the loss of the free seniors discount on the ferries Monday to Friday. However, that’s not the first time the B.C. government has managed to turn what should have been an epic celebration into one of ho-hum.
The first time the Victoria politicos put a kink in my life W.A.C. Bennett was on the throne. Yes, I know he was only a premier, but in his eyes that was only semantics. Anyway, as usual, I digress. What foiled my fifth birthday was the knowledge that kindergarten was only available in a few select B.C. municipalities. And the grand metropolis of Hixon where our family had moved to was not one of them. If you have no clue where in our province the town is, you’re not alone. If you blink once on the road from Prince George to Quesnel, you’ll miss it. At any rate, that and my three-year-old brother standing on my gift, a doll’s wooden high chair, to relieve himself are the big memories of that Sept. 4. There’s no good explanation for either transgression.
My next complaint concerns my coming of age or actually the lack thereof. For you see, on April 15, 1970, the reigning party of the day, led by my old nemesis Wacky Bennett, had lowered the age of majority from 21 to 19. What that meant was the day I should have become an adult under the new legislation, Sept. 4, 1969, was long past. Now, on the one hand that meant I could now drink legally in one of the three sketchy pubs in Revelstoke where I lived at the time; however, I would be forever denied the supreme pleasure of turning 21. Instead it became an ordinary birthday like any other.
So now we come to the present. Last fall the B.C. government, still Social Credit in everything but name, conspired once again to make sure I no longer had anything to look forward to today. I do get to ride for half price, but recent announcements make even that concession less meaningful. It’s no fun if everyone else gets to do it. And finally my last gripe – the gold card seniors in this province used to get on their 65th birthday is passé. And I suspect it’s too much to hope for that they’ll be sending me a card with gold in it.
Foiled again, darn.
