BS: Who you calling elderly?

Subject: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 22 May 21 - 11:04 AM

Who you calling elderly?

I saw a news article today about an attack on an elderly man. He is 67. I lookecd up the definition of elderly in my Meriam Webster dictionary and it said "Older than middle-aged." What a cop out. I didn't bother to check their definition of middle-aged. It probably says, "younger than elderly." The internet was no help. They group the elderly, Seniors, and older people into the same category.

In my mind, elderly people say "By Cracky," and slap their knee when they tell an old joke. I wrote a song about being old:
" You know you're getting old when you start to say, I don't know what's the matter with these kids today."

Old is when you lose your sense of humor; when you are fearful of the future and can't remember the past; when you can consider exxercise as going to the refrigerator to get a bottle of beer; when you've lost your curiosity; and when no one remembers your oldies because they weren't born yet.

It is no particular age. It is not a matter of health. It is a mindset.

I have no intention of ever being elderly. Thanks for the offer but I think I'll pass.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 May 21 - 12:16 PM

Beats the alternative hollow.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: meself
Date: 22 May 21 - 12:30 PM

When you are in your mid-60s - as I am, by the bye - you are old, as far as young people are concerned - it's just silly to rail against it. Don't you remember being young? I don't want younger people pussyfooting around, wondering how to characterize my stage of life without hurting my tender feelings.

'elderly people say "By Cracky," and slap their knee when they tell an old joke.' I'm looking forward to that being me - time I started practising, I guess.

'" You know you're getting old when you start to say, I don't know what's the matter with these kids today."' Read some comments on on-line forums - not so much on this one, thankfully, but elsewhere you'll find all kinds of complaints about 'millenials', etc., and Boomers going on about how all the music today is nothing but noise ....

Don't take any of this too seriously; I'm just an old man rambling on ... think I'll go take a nap, now; you kids enjoy yourselves ... don't worry about me .......

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 22 May 21 - 12:38 PM

I like your rambles, meself.

My body is old. It reminds me all the time. I don't listen to it when it whines. I tell it to get a life, and do the things I can do to keep my body as strong as is possible at my age (which is more than I would believe.)

One thing: You are never so old that you can't lift someone's
spirit. It is light as a feather.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 22 May 21 - 01:08 PM

I don't mind being tol that I am old. I am. My response then is, "and so?"

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 May 21 - 01:24 PM

Age, old age, is an ACHIEVEMENT.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Donuel
Date: 22 May 21 - 05:05 PM

Old is when you can no longer think ahead. That makes some old by age 17 and young at 70. My kin generally look 20 years younger than we are.
(we stayed out of the poison yellow sun of yours.)

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Malcolm Storey
Date: 22 May 21 - 08:45 PM

The one thing about being old is that it is never boring.
You wake up every morning with a different set of aches and pains.

Mind you if I'd known I was going to live this long I would have given up smoking 60 years ago rather than 20.

Time is of the essence - that's why retirement homes smell as they do!

I could go on but that will do for tonight.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 May 21 - 09:53 PM

Way back in high school I counted forward & realised I'd be 48!!!! in 2000 - I couldn't imagine being that old ...

When I was in my early 40s, my younger sister had a friend/workmate the same age as me & she was OLD. She dressed like our parents, had behaviours & attitudes like our parents or grandparents & made herself OLD.

I'm 25 years older now (70 next year!) & still wear long hippy dresses. They are much more comfortable than many more recent fashions. I was hissed at a few years back by a snarky contemporary that I was stuck in a time-warp & almost broke into Rocky Horror Time Warp but restrained myself as explaining her rudeness in front of our friends was not appropriate - something I might have done in my thoughtless youth!

I won't mention my sore bits ...

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 May 21 - 10:18 PM

"Don't trust anyone over 30!"

Bob Dylan turns 80 on Monday. Mick Jagger is turning 78 this year. Joan Baez is 80. Joni Mitchell will be 78 in November. Phil Ochs is dead. Tom Paxton will be 84. Mama Cass and Janice Joplin are dead.

I'm 76.

DON'T TRUST ANYBODY OVER 90!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: JennieG
Date: 22 May 21 - 10:48 PM

I once read that "old age is ten years older than your current age"......so it keeps getting pushed back.

Sounds good to me.

It does really piss me off, however, when someone on the news is described as "an elderly man/woman aged somewhere between 50 and 60" - age is usually mid-50s. Since when was mid-50s classed as "elderly"?

Sandra is right. Attitude is a big factor in age. When my mother was my current age she had one foot in the grave; the other followed less than 18 months later and in she slid. I hope not to follow suit.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 22 May 21 - 11:23 PM

One advantage of being labelled a "senior" in Oz is that we are eligible for the Seniors Card if we're working less than 21 hours per week. There are discounts on public transport and all sorts of other things. I'll accept being an oldie if there is a worthwhile advantage, and reject the title when it suits me.

My attire tends towards the hippie end of the scale as well. In the months after I retired I dyed my hair bright purple to celebrate. It was fun. It's a more sedate (NOT!) mulberry colour now.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 May 21 - 12:13 AM

Helen, wot a shame we hippy-dressing oldies didn't get the chance to meet up a couple of years ago. We could have checked out each other's wardrobe. Tho I am pondering coming to Newcastle for a Sunday afternoon concert in a few months, I go the same distance to Wollongong for a day trip, why not head north?

In my cartoon collection I have a strip showing 2 mothers of teens/20s - first one is offered the Seniors discount by the cashier & is offended (she is younger than the cashier thinks), the first one is still ranting as they leave, while the second has a thought balloon ("I saved 5%!")

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 May 21 - 12:25 AM

One of the churches here has a "Seasoned Citizens" lunch once a month at a local restaurant. If I get any more seasoned I'll be toxic!

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 23 May 21 - 01:27 AM

Hey Sandra, yes, come to sunny Nukes. What's the concert? One of those Senior Cits specials featuring We'll Meet Again, and Daisy Bell?

Sorry!! LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: BobL
Date: 23 May 21 - 02:35 AM

One delight of being my present age (post-retirement pre-boomer) is that the world seems to be increasingly populated with young and beautiful people.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jos
Date: 23 May 21 - 03:49 AM

I have met young children who are seriously 'middle aged' - like Sandra in Sydney's sister's friend, but about seven years old.

I have also seen people's images of 'the elderly' being exploited in advertising. A leaflet for a retirement home had pictures of an elegant, well-heeled, happy looking couple dressed in clothes from the early 1930s - this is how 'the elderly' would have been thought of by those the advertisement was really aimed at, who grew up in the 1960s, and looked very different.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 23 May 21 - 05:26 AM

I have it planned for some time in the future when I am forced to listen to a bunch of young'uns playing what they think is old folks music, e.g. the aforementioned "We'll Meet Again" etc. I'll be up the back yelling out, "play Stairway to Heaven" or even "play something by The Sex Pistols".

Back in the mid '80' my workplace was next to a Senior Citizens' Centre. They had regular concerts which we could hear through our back window. It made me wince even then. The way I figure it, the music that older folks probably want to hear was from when they were in their twenties, so in the mid-1980's, if the clientele were in their '60's, '70's or '80's, the repertoire should be from 40, 50 or 60 years ago, i.e. the 1940's, 1930's or 1920's. Daisy Bell, written in the 1890's should not have been on the list, although maybe We'll Meet Again would have appealed to the older people in the room because it was from World War II.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 23 May 21 - 06:10 AM

I've enjoyed every comment on here. I've been playing, telling stories, and just plain visiting nursing homes since the seventies. I first started in the sixties. At that time, I sang songs my mother was still singing... Casey Would Waltz With the Strawberry Blond, Shine on Harvest Moon, and Bicycle Built For Two vintage. As time passed, I moved into songs from the forties, then fifties. Now those songs are too old for some of the younger residents. When I have to sing rap. I'll know it's time to quit. :-)

Most of the songs I've written and stories I tell are not nostalgic. Many are about right now, although I throw in a little doo wop and standards. In nursing homes, showing that you care for someone is far more important than a steady diet of "oldies." Folks may be old, but they're living right now, and good stories are timeless.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 May 21 - 07:09 AM

I went to a pub in Broadford on Skye in 1974 that had a sign behind the bar saying "Credit is available to over-90s provided they are accompanied by both parents."

All my shirts are short-sleeved Hawaiian-style, I never wear long trousers or socks or a tie (the most ridiculously useless garment ever invented) and my footwear is always sandals. I possess no nightwear and never have (except for a pair in case I have to go into hospital). The most important thing for me in spring is to turn brown as quickly as possible. I'll be three score years and ten in three weeks' time.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Donuel
Date: 23 May 21 - 07:42 AM

Long pants and socks are a must in this Lyme disease area but Hawaiian shirts go with everything. It seems Helen, Steve and I are exactly the same age. My one pair of pajamas, should I ever need them, are a crossword puzzle design one can fill in with words.

I now picture steve wearing shorts, sandels and hawaiian shirt sporting a salted beard calling his cat "dinnneeer"

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 23 May 21 - 08:01 AM

"Old is when you lose your sense of humor" (Jerry)...and I've also enjoyed the humour in this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 23 May 21 - 08:48 AM

No, I haven't hit the septuagenarian stage yet but I only have a few more years of donating plasma before they show me the door.

One thing I have heard about is that people with dementia can remember songs from their youth and listening to those songs can light up their faces with joy.

If you are looking for some elderly humour, try the Aunty Acid cartoons. Do an image search on Google and there are hundreds of images.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 May 21 - 09:10 AM

Was it Pete Seeger maybe? who gave the definition that : "Old Age is where the Broad Mind and the Narrow Waist often change places"!!

Cheers,
R-J
(and I confess to shedding a teensy tear, as I say goodbye to my 60s this year :(

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jos
Date: 23 May 21 - 09:50 AM

If people ever ask me how old I am I usually can't remember. It keeps changing.
I do know which year I was born, so I have to remember which year it is now (which also keeps changing), do a bit of mental arithmetic, then take into account the time of year (it keeps changing as well) in order to work out whether I have had a birthday yet.
With luck, I will come up with somewhere near the right answer.

I knew my mother was getting old when she said "I'm eighty-three, you know."

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: meself
Date: 23 May 21 - 11:30 AM

I remember how delighted I was once when - many, many years ago - as my birthday was approaching I did the math, and discovered that I was 56 turning 57, and not 57 turning 58 as I had supposed. I couldn't help feeling that I'd gained a year.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 23 May 21 - 11:57 AM

Living in England, I can't forget as it's often mentioned how long since we won the FIFA World Cup - the day I was born in Manchester.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 May 21 - 12:14 PM

I watched that match on a big black-and-white telly in Victor Value supermarket in Radcliffe, where I was the Saturday lad (fifteen bob for a day's work). The manager, usually a miserable sod, hired the telly for the afternoon from Radio Rentals and actually let us watch the game instead of working...

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 23 May 21 - 05:53 PM

Jos, that's pretty much the same mental process I go through. My first response to the enquirer is, "what year is it?" but really that's a delaying tactic to give me time to do the calculations.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Malcolm Storey
Date: 23 May 21 - 08:06 PM

Vis 1966
We were busily changing the brake blocks on the pal with the car's car.
That's what you did then.
The plan was to get the job done before the match started.
Took a bit longer than anticipated so we did a bit more at half time and then again at full time before completing the job after extra time.
After that it was down to the pub where everyone seemed especially jolly, not the least the landlord.
The next day the four of us went for a spin in the pal's car and the brakes worked beautifully.
Happy days.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Donuel
Date: 24 May 21 - 07:22 AM

I was young when the shot heard round the world happened.
"The Giants win the pennent..."

Bob Dylan is 80 today

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 24 May 21 - 09:12 AM

Helen:

I've been singing in nursing home for over sixty years, and have many amazing stories about sudden breathroughs to people with Dementia after long times without speaking a word. Music is usually the trigger.

Once, I was singing in a Dementia ward where it wasn't clear to me that I was getting through to anyone. There was an old woman sitting motionless in her wheel chair who hadn't shown any response to the music until I sang Lucky Old Sun. As soon as I started singing, she joined in with a firm voice, and sang the whole song with me with a smile on her face. When we were done she slipped back into the silent void.

Music can bring people back with a clear mind.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jeri
Date: 24 May 21 - 09:32 AM

Someone once got upset with me over my use of the term "geezer". IMO, it has more to do with attitude than age, but age can mean people get set in their ways and intolerant of anything "new", and it was sort of nice to have someone assume I was one o' them young folks. I guess it's just different things that set off my own geezerness.

Meself, my birthday's in Dec, and one year, I got to May, thinking I was a year oder than I was. The fact I was actually 42 probably wasn't significant.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: meself
Date: 24 May 21 - 10:54 AM

Did you have that delightful feeling of having gained a year?

Btw, I gather from English TV & movies that 'geezer' on the east side of the pond is a generic term that doesn't imply anything about age - someone will quickly correct me if I have that one wrong ... !

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Charmion
Date: 24 May 21 - 11:35 AM

The first time I heard the buzz of time's winged chariot hovering near, I was only 24 years old. I was doing a recruit medical on a candidate born after 1959.

Latterly, it's mostly when I'm talking to people who don't remember or have never heard of events that were world-changing to me. Whaddaya mean, you don't remember the Save Canada rally of 1995?

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 24 May 21 - 11:44 AM

A geezer in the UK is just a bloke or chap. We would say old geezer to indicate agedness, but the two words are so often used together it's no surprise that geezer by itself has become associated with age. We also speak of diamond geezers aka terrific blokes or thoroughly decent chaps.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jeri
Date: 24 May 21 - 12:00 PM

Meself, it was great to get to do-over for 6 months!

When I think of the word "geezer", I thinks of someone who's miserable, hates change, and complains a lot. Unfortunately, it frequently has something to do with age, but being "old" isn't a requirement. I think we have more risk of being miserable, hating change, and prone to complaining when we get older. I might qualify, on a bad day, but I'd never think of Jerry as a geezer.

One thing that I've been noticing is who was alive when I was younger. Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx, Kate Smith, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, the entire Rat Pack... sometimes I think I should make a list, but then I realize how long it would take me.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 24 May 21 - 12:10 PM

I'm 73 and didn't feel especially old until I was referred, by my GP, to the "Medicines of the Elderly" clinic recently. Just a general check up, but that title made me want to take up bowls and moan about "kids today" [:-}

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jeri
Date: 24 May 21 - 12:17 PM

I ought to change my handle from "Jeri" to "Jeri Attric".

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 May 21 - 12:23 PM

I was feeling incredibly old and achy - until my doctor discovered my thyroid was way low. What a difference a month makes!

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 24 May 21 - 12:26 PM

I am "old" enough to be considered "elderly" by anyone's standards, I guess. At 75, I mused, "I think I might be old now." The broken ankle shortly after my 80th aged me greatly; I forsook any sort of physical therapy and it was 3 years before I could be comfortable on uneven ground. I am still exceedingly careful - each step with mindfulness. The broken ankle never hurt much but being dependent was dreadful. Not being able to leave the house, even though I had the Rolls Royce of walkers was depressing; my house mate never "got it" that a railing really would have made a difference. Those weeks of isolation were far worse than current "stay home". The whole thing aged me unnecessarily.

Now 84, I went off and purchased enough (20) bags of "black earth" to plant the tomato plants on top of the clay in the back yard. As soon as the battery powered "weed eater" is charged, I will clear a track through the 18 inch grass so I can back up to the planting site. This is the BIG planting weekend in our part of Canada. So plant I shall! Greatly regretting the plastic bags that I am using. A gorgeous day and... Being 84 and reasonably healthy, I can easily forget I am "elderly"! Until I overdo it.

My house mate just turned 74; he feels old. But he works, physically and mentally, 7 days a week most times. High stress. He just took two days off to veg out; did not even finish installing the new bathroom sink. I mentioned it would have been nice... But he went off to work on this national holiday in far better shape.

The years have little to do with it; what we do to our bodies in those years... And how we view it all. I expected I would die at 58... Went to a Good doctor who pronounced me healthy; I trusted him.

People can call me elderly; that's their perception. Officially, I am old, elderly, whatever. I just keep muddling along.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: meself
Date: 24 May 21 - 12:29 PM

One time - um ... years ago - I made my first visit to a community music group that I was considering joining. When I arrived at the hall, I saw a prominent sign advertising that it was an "Over 50" club. I immediately had a sinking feeling - and then it occurred to me that I was well past 50 myself ......

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Bill D
Date: 24 May 21 - 02:36 PM

I wonder why (many) people decide that people over 50.. or over 60..or...whatever... get the idea that people of 'an age' only want to socialize with others in their age group.
The folk realm has for 60 years meant I could share music AND ideas with folks of all ages.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jos
Date: 24 May 21 - 02:39 PM

I wouldn't want to join any group intended for the 'over 50s', or live in a compound housing only 'over 50s', or do anything else with an age restriction. There is so much to gain on all sides from people of different ages interacting, learning from, and enjoying the company of each other.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jos
Date: 24 May 21 - 02:47 PM

Bill D, you posted while I was typing, and we were thinking much the same thing.
I remember a friend at university who bought a small car so that she could move out of town, as she couldn't bear hardly ever meeting anyone who wasn't aged between 18 and 24. She valued the variety and richness to be found outside the student bubble.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Helen
Date: 24 May 21 - 04:34 PM

So SRS, no more porridge brain, eh? You're right, I felt elderly before being diagnosed with the thyroid issue and when the medication kicked in I was back to normal life.

I do feel old when I listen to some of what they call music these days. The type of popular music which has no real melody, and the little melody it does have is repeated and repeated for each line which is the same lyric over and over. It's only some of the current music around. Some of it I do like.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 24 May 21 - 04:49 PM

Just back to 1966 briefly, Jack Charlton (RIP) was on Facebook for a while saying, e.g., how much he liked fly fishing and disliked women's football; then one time he posted a photo of the World Cup winning team, with a caption saying something like who's the handsome tall chap in the middle?

I let him know what I posted above and added that, despite being born with a club foot, I managed to play A-grade juniors in Sydney; to which he replied - Alf Ramsey used to say I was born with 2 club feet!

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Jeri
Date: 24 May 21 - 05:38 PM

My thyroid is fine. What I have a problem with is B-12. Doc gave me supplements, and I'm feeling better.

My biggest issue with "the way things are these days" is television. Used to be, there were a few networks, and shows were on at specified times. You'd talk about the latest episode of whatever, and it was a social bonding thing. Now, you can watch shows anytime - there's no schedule - and with no set times, I forget to watch, and there IS no "latest episode". It has good points. Families no longer argue about who gets to watch their show at a given time, and binge-watching has helped us stay sane during the lock-down.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 24 May 21 - 05:45 PM

Hearing it's the vitamin that vegans struggle to get enough of, I have a slice a day of a vegan cheese with added vitamin B12.

Subject: RE: BS: Who you calling elderly?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 May 21 - 06:00 PM

Drink those Alpro oat/soya/almond milks. They're vegan and they all have B12 added. I love the unsweetened oaty one.