WORDS BY ME | KATIE Z.

Maybe it’s your mom, sister, brother, roommate or that weirdo coworker with the Betty White calendar (complete with centerfold collage) in her office…ok maybe that’s just weirdo me.

Whoever it may be, chances are you know at least one, true, diehard, love-everything-about-them, Golden Girls fanatic.

Every Golden Girls fan has their nostalgic reasons behind their love. Maybe you watched every episode with your mom, like me, and even your grandmother when you went for a visit. All cuddled up in one of those deep orange and brown afghans that seemed to be so popular in the 80s. I bet your Grammy had one, too!

Maybe your dad got flustered, like mine, when their sexual innuendos when flying over your 8-year-old head.

Or maybe you have fun sharing the show with your own children now? I’m emphasizing the word you here, because, and I know this is shocking, but for some reason 6-year-old boys seem to have little to no interest in learning how hilarious Rose’s St Olaf jokes are. Pssht, whatever kid, run along.

But maybe it’s more than that.

Maybe those four ladies were truly pioneers? Groundbreaking. After all, they weren’t afraid to address race, equality, AIDS, gay marriage…and they weren’t afraid to fight for their teddy bears, damn it!

Before their debut, had network television ever seen four women rooming together, living vibrant lives, falling in love, falling out of love or just simply getting busy as they pleased?

Did it change the way we’d see women, especially senior women, forever?

Did it shape the way we’d eventually see our own future selves? Was it controversial that these women had full lives and interests outside of their children, grandchildren, husbands, ex-husbands and even parents? Well, except Sophia and Dorothy maybe, you can’t get more codependent than those two.

But no longer did we have to accept growing older and letting go of our youthful passions. Resigning quietly to a rocking chair in the corner, knitting those barf colored afghans that we’ll eventually raffle away at some church picnic.

Unless of course that’s what you want to do, then that’s totally cool, too. Whatever floats your little old lady boat.

But The Golden Girls showed us that we had a choice on how to live our golden years. 

And I for one, will forever thank them for that.