When They Grow Up (Aging Baby Boomers are in denial about getting old)

National Review ^ | 02/11/2011 | Mona Charen

[Chuzzlewit]

hahhhh!!! and thanks for your service !!!

[TN4Liberty]

get a wife or husband, which I did last year,

Okay, I have to ask. Which one did you get?

[Chuzzlewit]

I got me a wifey...my childbook sweetheart. I had been looking for her for 10 years on the internet, and I finally found her on Facebook.

[boomop1]

When I retired my wife decided we needed a little job so we became crossing guards at a local school. It was in an upscale neighborhood, mommies would bring their children, one forty plus would dress as a teenager. I mentioned to one other conservatively dressed mom that the other mom was afraid of growing old, she nodded in agreement.

[tbpiper]

in my case 62 is the new 82

That's a line to remember.

One thing I've noticed is that I wake up stiff as a board and now its just my joints.

[Pearls Before Swine]

“The generation that sent diaper sales soaring in the 1960s, bought power suits in the 1980s and indulged in luxury cars in the 2000s is getting ready to retire.."

We are, and we're about to set diaper sales soaring once again!

[JimRed]

I’m a pre-boomer (1943). Still play rec b’ball a couple of times a week (those 40 year old kids are killin’ me!), run for fitness and a few 5k - 5 mile recreational races a year.

God has been better to me than I deserve!

[skeeter]

I’m at the tail end of the baby boom generation and despise those that came of age during the 60’s as they are responsible for the cultural decline. Almost every major ill/problem can be traced back to these self indulgent bastards.

I must admit I have to resist feeling the same way. However, the more history I read the more aware I become that the decline has be a long time coming.

It just seems to have started withthe Boomers because there were/are so damn many of them. But remember who were egging them on in the 60s.

[kaylar]

I look at pictures of my grandparents, and at age 55 they looked like today's 80-year-olds. Chalk it up to the better nutrition, better medicine, or whatever, today's boomers look and act younger than our predecessors.

I look at photos of my relatives taken back in the 1950s-1960s, and the 30somethings look as if they're pushing 50, the 40- and 50somethings are indistinguishable from the ones in their 60s and 70s. It's partly due to the fashions they chose, which look matronly to later eyes : All women at age 30 (or 25, if they're married with children) choosing to have their hair chopped off into hideously unflattering, frizzy "cap of curl" mushroom shapes a la Edith Bunker, mid calf skirts, flat pancake heels, cardigans as a uniform...It is likely that if you took an average middle or upperclass woman in her 40s of today and teleported her back in time , she'd probably be perceived as 30-34 by those around her. Less smoking (which causes and worsens facial lines) knowledge that tanning damages skin (when my mom was in college in the early 1960s, she was REQUIRED to sunbathe-seriously!), easier lives for most...Much of what was thought to be intrinsic ageing is now known to be preventable or at least delayed, and we should all be glad it's so.

I agree with you that people should dress and act as they feel, not according to other people's stereotypes and attitudes about what's "appropriate" for people who have X number of birthdays.

[Vaduz]

10) Men who haven’ t hit the gym in a decade attempting to bench their weigh and blow out a pec muscle instead.

Yep it’s a problem that’s why the only exersise I do is walking and mood swings.

[fightinJAG]

Please don’t always put your comment in the title box!

Titles in the title box, comments in the comment box.

This trend toward more and more editorial parentheticals in the title box clutters to forum and also makes it unclear what the title of the article actually is.

Thank you!

[The Comedian]

Yep it’s a problem that’s why the only exersise I do is walking and mood swings.

Don't forget 12 oz. curls too.

Today is a good day to die.
I didn't say for whom.

[meowmeow]

I look at photos of my relatives taken back in the 1950s-1960s, and the 30somethings look as if they're pushing 50, the 40- and 50somethings are indistinguishable from the ones in their 60s and 70s.

My grandmother is 90 and other than being a little shrunken, she looks, dresses and acts exactly the way she did when she was 47 (the youngest I remember her and the age I am now). Last year I went out on a quick, fun 10 mile run with some friends, got lost and we ended up running a soggy, cold 15 miles. It was a funny story that I told my mom who in turn shared it with grandma. Grandma had a fit! "Why, you tell her to stop running! She is TOO OLD to run."

Looking back at grandma at this age, I don't doubt she WAS too old to run at 47. But my 47 isn't her 47 or even my mom's 47 - whole different mindset these days and I don't think that is a bad thing at all!

[meowmeow]

I look at photos of my relatives taken back in the 1950s-1960s, and the 30somethings look as if they're pushing 50, the 40- and 50somethings are indistinguishable from the ones in their 60s and 70s.

My grandmother is 90 and other than being a little shrunken, she looks, dresses and acts exactly the way she did when she was 47 (the youngest I remember her and the age I am now). Last year I went out on a quick, fun 10 mile run with some friends, got lost and we ended up running a soggy, cold 15 miles. It was a funny story that I told my mom who in turn shared it with grandma. Grandma had a fit! "Why, you tell her to stop running! She is TOO OLD to run."

Looking back at grandma at this age, I don't doubt she WAS too old to run at 47. But my 47 isn't her 47 or even my mom's 47 - whole different mindset these days and I don't think that is a bad thing at all!

[meowmeow]

I look at photos of my relatives taken back in the 1950s-1960s, and the 30somethings look as if they're pushing 50, the 40- and 50somethings are indistinguishable from the ones in their 60s and 70s.

My grandmother is 90 and other than being a little shrunken, she looks, dresses and acts exactly the way she did when she was 47 (the youngest I remember her and the age I am now). Last year I went out on a quick, fun 10 mile run with some friends, got lost and we ended up running a soggy, cold 15 miles. It was a funny story that I told my mom who in turn shared it with grandma. Grandma had a fit! "Why, you tell her to stop running! She is TOO OLD to run."

Looking back at grandma at this age, I don't doubt she WAS too old to run at 47. But my 47 isn't her 47 or even my mom's 47 - whole different mindset these days and I don't think that is a bad thing at all!

[meowmeow]

Crap - how did I manage posting 3 times? Must be getting old...

[kaylar]

Looking back at grandma at this age, I don't doubt she WAS too old to run at 47. But my 47 isn't her 47 or even my mom's 47 - whole different mindset these days and I don't think that is a bad thing at all!

Wholehearted agreement! :-)

[RightOnline]

As recently as a few short years ago, I was benching WELL over my body weight (and I’m 55). Still, since I plan on getting back into lifting after a few years’ hiatus, I’m also smart enough to know that you start all over; take baby steps and work back up to it.

That’s where too many make such idiotic mistakes: not realizing or acknowledging that they have to work back up to where they were before. Not this old man. :)