“SOME elderly can be just mean though.”
People at that age tend to be emotionally volatile, since they often don’t care what others think of them anymore. I think the guy who shot up the Holocaust Memorial (James von Brunn) is a classic example. He probably was consumed with rage for years and finally exploded at the age of 87 when he figured that he didn’t have that much time left. Von Brunn’s own son admitted that he had always been a miserable SOB.
Others like Jimmy Carter don’t vent their anger with a gun; they just become progressively more nasty in their public statements as they get old.