Rant #3,932: When I Grow Up To Be a Man

I just heard from an old friend, who wished me well with the procedure I will be going through early next week.

It made me feel really good, and I was happy to hear that he was doing pretty well himself.

Goodness, and to think that when we were kids, the furthest thing from our minds was our health--

And getting older.

We looked at people who were our age now as "old fogeys," and never realized that if we were lucky, we would one day be the current version of those "old fogeys."

As I have said in the past, I don't feel old, just older--

Although the past several months have made me feel that yes, I am old.

But when I read stories about people who live past 100 years of age, I have to take a step back.

Am I really old?

No, I don't think I am.

And those people who reach past 100 aren't either, because it is their mindset that is admirable.

They don't feel old even past the century mark, so why should I?

I should be embarrassed to even think that I am old.

I haven't even reached 70 years of age yet--

How can I be old?

But onto other things ...

And yes, I have to talk about someone who just died, someone who was not a major star but who might have touched us all by her performances on TV and in the movies.

Joy Harmon passed away the other day at age 85.

If you don't know the name, you certainly knew her look.

She was in countless movies and TV shows into the early 1970s, and boy, did she have the look.

The blond, saucer-eyed actress--who was sort of that period of time's version of Sydney Sweeney--appeared in numerous TV shows including "The Monkees," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "My Three Sons," "The Odd Couple," and countless other sitcoms, but her "bust out" role was in a Clint Eastwood film.

"Cool Hand Luke" featured one of those Hollywood scenes that you never forget. Eastwood, in jail with his fellow prisoners, was on a work gang, and encountered Harmon's "Lucille," wearing the tightest outfit that Hollywood would then allow, out before them on the road.

These women-starved men were then subject to one of the absolutely sexiest scenes ever put on celluloid, as she washed her car as they ogled and watched, with as much water and soap caressing her voluptuous figure as was going on the car.

It was an incredible scene, not just for the convicts to see, but for the movie audience as well.

She was never a star, pretty much used as eye candy in whatever role she had, and I think she probably knew that.

Her real passion was baking, believe it or not.

She tried out her recipes while still acting, and when the acting roles dried up and she knew that that part of her life was over, she became quite a famous baker, opening Aunt Joy's Cakes in Burbank, Calif., a popular spot for all baked goods, where she worked for the rest of her life.

Again, Harmon was a name most people didn't know, but when you saw her on the big screen or on TV, she was someone that you never forgot.

R.I.P., Joy, you done good.