Sunday, April 17, 2022

Three Grown-Up Lessons I Didn't Learn When I Was A Child

I saw them. I experienced them. I didn't comprehend them. No grown-ups told me. Nobody explained them. They happened. I think back to three unanswered life questions and the answers or lessons I learned as an adult.

1. How come the San Francisco 49ers didn't appear in all the Super Bowls in the 1980s?

Short answer: Nobody's perfect. Nobody wins all the time.

Long answer: I was a casual football fan in 1984 when the Los Angeles Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins 38-9 in Super Bowl XVIII. I became a genuine football fan when the San Francisco 49ers went 15-1 in the 1984-1985 season. I watched my first Super Bowl when the 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX at Stanford Stadium in Stanford, CA.

The 49ers were the best football team in the 1980s. I never answered the question how come every year another team in the NFC appeared in the Super Bowl? I felt disappointed the 49ers didn't make the Super Bowl in 1986 and 1987. I felt they failed. I felt they were losers. The 49ers were supposed to be perfect. The 49ers were supposed to be the best. The 49ers won two more Super Bowls in the 1987-1988 and 1988-1989 seasons.

The grown-up lesson: Winning a championship is hard in professional sports. Only one team wins. The rest of the teams lose. There are changes at the end of a season such as new coaches, players retired, and moving ownership personnel. These changes affect the teams for the next season. A sports team can't win all the championships all the time.

2. Why do actors and actresses appear in more than one TV show? Or why do many TV shows have different main actors and actresses each season? A similar question is why do actors and actresses appear in different movies playing different characters? There are multiple actors who played James Bond. Why wasn't the late Sean Connery always the James Bond character? Why was the late Roger Moore replaced after A View To A Kill?

Short answer: Actors and actresses don't make one movie and one television show for their entire careers; although, there are expectations such as one-time hit actors and actresses.

Long answer: I answer the question from the perspective of Three's Company which is my first all-time favorite TV show.

I was confused when Three's Company changed one of the main actresses from Suzanne Somers playing Chrissy Snow to Jenilee Harrison playing Cindy Snow to Priscilla Barnes playing Terri Alden. I was also confused when Norman Fell playing Stanley Roper and Audra Lindley playing Helen Roper as the apartment complex owners departed. The Ropers were replaced with Don Knotts playing Ralph Furley as the apartment manager. I always thought television series never change actors and actresses.

Three's Company is another example of television shows past, present, and future there's always changes for better or for worse. Fell and Lindley departed Three's Company to a spinoff titled The Ropers. Actress Ann Wedgeworth playing Lana Shields was a main character in season four only. Somers departed in season five because of a contract dispute. The final season Ritter continued Three's Company as a spinoff titled Three's A Crowd.

The grown-up lesson: Nothing is permanent. People come and go in our lives. Stories change. Everything is never the same all the time. Life finds a way to change something, anything, and anyone.

3. Why do each new school year there are new students?

Short answer: Families move. Families change. School curriculums change.

Long answer: Question three should not have been asked because I changed schools two times from K-5. I attended a private school in kindergarten and first grade. I attended public schools from 2-5 for which my family and I moved after my third grade. The question could have been asked if I attended the same primary school from K-5. Each new year I'm at a new grade I see new students in my grade and in my classroom.

It's like new neighbors. There are homes for sales. Tenants move out of apartment complexes. Families, couples, and individuals move out of their old neighborhood and in a new neighborhood. Some reasons include a new job, care for an elder family member, unemployment, marriage, new child, upgrading to a bigger size residence, downgrading to a small size residence, unfortunate personal circumstances, and residential investments.

The grown-up lesson: Families come and go in the neighborhoods. Their children need to go to school.

The number one, number two, and number three questions one-word grown-up lesson answer is change.

Update On A Past Blog

Add change to the list of lessons I learned later in life. The blog Growing Up Too Late Was Not My Fault written on Nov 14, 2015 partially explained my sheltered life with little new experiences and little life lessons learned outside the classroom. My quiet life was taken for granted no change was necessary for the better.

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