When I launched the 70-something.com blog, I promised to chronicle the good and bad of my seventies, and that includes what I see in the mirror.

Which brings me to the question du jour, "What has happened to my behind?"

Like my mother's, my derrière was generous in size. I have a picture of my parents on their honeymoon in Bermuda. My mother is leaning provocatively against a post. In her fashionable (for the 1930's) bathing suit, she has a very noticeable rear end. Which I inherited.

My dad liked well-rounded back sides. He was known to observe about some females, "I'd like to have that swing on my back porch." My half-sister, also well rear-endowed, once told me that she often feels like someone is following her. And then she realizes it's her.

It took me a long time to realize that my back side was flattening, possibly because I tend to concentrate on my front side which is in a constant state of un-flattening.

I don't like the new look of my behind. One more reason to be glad Peter's eyesight isn't what it used to be. Come to think of it, neither is his behind.