I used to tell people - in jest - that Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince and myself formed the Mount Rushmore of notable people born in 1958.
In the words of the famous "Sesame Street" song: "One of these things is not like the others. One of the things just doesn't belong."
Me.
Anyway, the Rushmore joke is not even funny to me anymore now that Prince and M.J. have died.
Which brings us to my point of the day: Baby Boomers are entering the obit age.
For most of our lives, the obits were just dull, gray pages in the newspaper that our parents and grandparents used to read. Now, hardly a week passes when we aren't reminded of our own mortality by the death of some celebrity we grew up with. You need a digital subscription to The New York Times just to keep up with the death beat.
Mark KennedyView other columns by Mark Kennedy
In the past, we Boomers have only been interested in obits when one of our own died young: think John Belushi or Princess Di.
But in 2017, the obits have been relentless, containing a who's who list of people we Baby Boomers grew up watching on television in the 1970s: Mary Tyler Moore, David Cassidy, Glen Campbell, Jerry Lewis, Jim Nabors and Monty Hall to name a few.
For me, each obit triggered a memory.
MTM crying "Rob!" on the old "Dick Van Dyke Show."
Glen Campbell singing "Wichita Lineman" on AM radio.
Jerry Lewis waving his hanky through "You'll Never Walk Alone" on the yearly MD telethons.
David Cassidy singing "I Think I Love You" with the Partridge Family band.
Jim Nabors making "Gahh-ahh-lee" a three-syllable word.
Monty Hall offering female "Let's Make a Deal" contestants $200 if they had a boiled egg in their purse.
For Boomers, it's almost as if the obits are now nibbling us away one at a time. Thankfully, the Baby Boom generation, the million Americans born from 1945 to 1964, is broad and vast. There are still almost 74 million of us between the ages of 51 and 69, so it will be decades before we pass entirely.
But the beginning of the end has begun. Millennials passed Boomers as the largest living generation of Americans in 2014, and the numbers will continue to diverge.
I have a feeling that we Boomers will change the culture of death and dying. We've put our imprint on everything else for almost 70 years. Why not death.
You can already see it happening in one important area.
In 2015, more Americans chose cremation over burial for the first time. By 2030, the National Funeral Directors Association predicts that 70 percent of Americans will choose cremation. The days of open-casket funerals appear to be numbered.
I am also noticing a new informality - even humor - in the obits in the newspaper. For generations, obits were written by newspaper clerks who followed strict rules about style and tone.
Many Boomers will choose to pre-write their obits, injecting a bit of their personalities.
We got a kick out of recent obit that noted that the deceased was a proud member of a local country club, the Mountain City Club and Sam's Club.
Mark my words, we Boomers will be the first generation of Americans to go to our eternal reward accompanied by a rim shot.
Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6645.