When I was in high school, the coolest guy in the world was British.

[caption id="attachment_1494" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="1965"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/TBall.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1494" title="TBall" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/TBall-300x221.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="221" /></a>[/caption]

Of course he was also a fictional character, but if there was anyone who didn't want to be James Bond, I sure didn't know him.

Bond was suave, sophisticated, great with the ladies and capable of doing all sorts of impossible things for Queen and Country.

Of course there have been all sorts of actors playing Secret Agent 007 since the series began in 1962 with "Doctor No," including Woody Allen,  but for those of us who were the right age to see the original films in their first release, the only <em>real</em> Bond is Sean Connery.

It has been nearly 40 years since Connery did his last turn as Bond, and at 81, he is in semi-retirement. But just as Connery played Robin Hood at the end of his life in "Robin and Marian," it might be interesting to see him as an older, retired 007.

Actually, his role in "The Rock" as a British secret agent who has been in an American prison for decades could easily have been a Bond takeoff.

I don't think "Thunderball" was Connery's best turn as Bond -- "From Russia With Love" and "Goldfinger" are probably competing for that honor -- but there was something special about it. Maybe it was that Connery was maturing as Bond, or maybe it's just that I was 15 then and had read most of Ian Fleming's Bond novels.

For whatever reason, I still enjoy "Thunderball," even though I'm watching it on a 37-inch television instead of the massive movie screens of the '60s.

We adjust, and anyway, it's the memories that matter.

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