Drumming Along: Life After 50

Is there something you always wanted to do? Wanted to master? Or at least wanted to try?
Sing? Dance? Act on stage? Parachute?
Something you didn’t have the discipline to do when you were young? Or didn’t have the time to do when you were raising a family?
It’s too late now, you might think. I should have done that when I had the chance.
Perhaps you should think again.
Middle age might be the perfect time to take a stab at the craft or hobby that’s been languishing in the back of your mental closet.
As Baby Boomers turn 45, 50 and 60, there is no time like the present to take that passion out and give it a whirl.
That’s what I did a few years back.
I have always loved music. From The Beatles to Elton John to Maroon 5, I have tuned in to the rhythms of the radio. Unfortunately, I can’t sing. Can’t carry a tune in a bucket, as my dad says. My small motor skills aren’t the best either, so musical instruments didn’t come easy.
But the drums. That was something else.
Growing up, my neighbor, Rodney, played them. He had a drum set in his bedroom. I would listen to him bang the cymbals and hit the skins for hours in junior high and high school. Seemed like an instrument I might be able to play, but I never got the courage to sit down and try it.
That desire lingered through adulthood, but it was never acted upon. Then, a few years back, my wife, Mary, and I went to Sacramento to see her friend, Nancy Pepin, and her husband, Marc. He played drums in a trio. We watched him perform at a little club in Folsom. It was great.
Marc told me he too had always wanted to play the percussion, so he’d taken up the drums at age 50.
“I’m a big believer in the adage that it’s never too late to learn something new,” he told me. Fantastic.
A few months later, on my 50th birthday, my wonderful wife and my youngest daughter, Katherine, gave me eight drum lessons from a percussionist in Danville. So, I called up, made an appointment and went. He showed me some basics and gave me sheets of practice drills. I used up the octet of lessons, kept the sheets and banged the sticks on pillows and carpets at home.
It was fun, but it wasn’t really playing the drums. I mentioned my situation to my friend, professional triathlete Eric Harr. A few months later, on my 51st birthday, a drum set arrived on our front porch, courtesy of my good pal.
I assembled the drums quicker than you can say “Buddy Rich” and began to pound away. Almost every day. Eventually, I figured out the bare skins were too loud. So, I went to a music store and purchased muffs for the drums and cymbals, so I wouldn’t go deaf and my neighbors wouldn’t call the cops.
I play most days, usually in the afternoons when I’m home from work, Mary is at her job and the neighbors are awake.
It’s been an uplifting and soul-filling experience.
I urge my fellow Baby Boomers to do the same. Now is the time to try that activity you’ve always wanted to do. Doesn’t matter what it is. If you’ve had a desire, follow it.
This is a time in our lives to quench our internal thirsts. Improve our inner selves. Break open those unopened packages.
Lynn Friedman, a video editor at a television station in San Francisco, did so when she neared 50. She’d always had a passion for photography. So, she got serious with her camera.
Took photos at events. Took pictures of landscapes. Snapped shots of people. Now, she regularly has exhibits of her work at galleries. It was a way for her to bust out of her life mold. She urges other Boomers to do the same.
“We’ve been hunkering down at the video store for too long,” she told me.
So, give it a try, Boomers. It doesn’t have to be for money. It can be for fun. Or just because it’s there.
I have no plans to join a band or perform publicly. First off, I’m not good enough. Second, that would take the enjoyment out of it.
It’s simple pleasure. The drums sit in our front room. When the mood strikes, I do a few drills, then put on a c-d and bang away to the music. If my grandson Shea is visiting, he’ll sit on my lap, grab a stick in each hand and smack the drums he can reach.
It’s recreation I never thought I would have, but I discovered late in life is not a bad time to try it.
Actor Pierce Brosnan may have summed it up best. While talking about advancing in age, he told Life magazine in 2005, “I feel like an old lion with a wonderful sense of liberation.”
Pierce is right. So, let out a roar, Baby Boomers. Find out what will liberate you.