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When They Grow Up (Aging Baby Boomers are in denial about getting old)
National Review ^ | 02/11/2011 | Mona Charen

Posted on 02/11/2011 7:09:36 AM PST by SeekAndFind

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1 posted on 02/11/2011 7:09:39 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I admit it, I’m old.

But that’s no reason to get out of shape, or stop reading and thinking. I have redoubled my efforts in both areas.


2 posted on 02/11/2011 7:11:38 AM PST by proxy_user
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To: proxy_user
I don't regret growing old, it's a privilege denied to many.
3 posted on 02/11/2011 7:14:31 AM PST by existtoexcel
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To: SeekAndFind
Bathroom-fixture maker Kohler, the WSJ reports, set its wizards the task of renaming the “grab bar” — a shower fixture for, shall we say, experienced bathers. They came up with “belay” (after the mountaineering term), and designed it to blend unobtrusively into the tile wall.

So the old folks demanded this? They picketed and begged not to be called "old"? *sigh* Marketing gimmicks are not the fault of the public.

4 posted on 02/11/2011 7:14:50 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are at your door! How will you answer the knock?)
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To: SeekAndFind
Not this Baby Boomer...every ache and pain tells me I am getting OLD.

you hear people on TV saying 60 is the new 40, right???

in my case 62 is the new 82

now if my doctors would give me HGH(they look at me funny when I ask), I might allow myself to be deluded into thinking I wasn't getting old.

5 posted on 02/11/2011 7:15:12 AM PST by Vaquero ("an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: proxy_user

“But that’s no reason to get out of shape, or stop reading and thinking. I have redoubled my efforts in both areas.”

Me too. At 51 I am still within 5 pounds of what I weighed when I was 21. But I can’t do everything I did 30 years ago (and probably shouldn’t have then, either).

I like to say that “Maturity is the acceptance of an ever lengthening list of limitations.” Some of our generation needs a lot of maturity.


6 posted on 02/11/2011 7:16:04 AM PST by henkster (Before we make any more "investments" we ought to be shown the prospectus.)
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To: proxy_user

I’m a Boomer. Yes, stay active, in shape, engaged and ready to learn new things. Always.

Age is just a number.


7 posted on 02/11/2011 7:16:51 AM PST by BunnySlippers (I love BULL MARKETS . . .)
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To: SeekAndFind

Aging gracefully is something that requires ‘character’ and that is something which has been bred out of most Americans (beginning with but not exclusive to Baby Boomers)!!


8 posted on 02/11/2011 7:17:45 AM PST by SMARTY (Conforming to non-conformity is conforming just the same.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I admire the Boomers for not just getting “old” and gathering dust.

When my grandmother was 65 she couldn’t even imagine running. Now I see 65 year olds running in 25K races with as much drive as 22 year olds.


9 posted on 02/11/2011 7:17:47 AM PST by VanDeKoik (1 million in stimulus dollars paid for this tagline!)
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To: SeekAndFind
Its simple - young people buy stuff, old people don't.

I look at pictures of my granddad when he was the age I am today & its hard to believe.

10 posted on 02/11/2011 7:18:55 AM PST by skeeter
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To: SeekAndFind

All I can say is if boomers can’t accept aging, there will be even more hell to pay from the spoiled brats in the follow on generations. They barely accepted being young.


11 posted on 02/11/2011 7:19:33 AM PST by Williams (It's the policies, stupid.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Oh, it’s just a phase. You get used to it and embrace the fact you aren’t a young fool anymore.

Instead you are an old fool. LOL


12 posted on 02/11/2011 7:20:09 AM PST by dforest
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To: SMARTY
Not a boomer?

I believe that the 60's hippies are who these people are addressing. You've seen the Grandpas with the ponytails and their wives trying to look like they did in the 60's.

13 posted on 02/11/2011 7:21:01 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are at your door! How will you answer the knock?)
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To: SeekAndFind
Sounds like Mona is just projecting, insofar as she is no spring chicken.

Seems that Charin wants us all to act like our great-grandparents, sit in a rocking chair all day long and try to ring the spitoon spitting snuff.

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.

My question to Mona is....So What?

Her assessment amounts to "profiling" people over 65. "Old people ain't acting like old people" seems to be her rant.

Well gosh darn, I'm going to run right out and buy me a pack of Depends and a walking cane so I can live up to the vision of yet, another "journalist" on how America should be.

Maybe I'll trade my cellphone in for a "Jitterbug" and have my son build me a "ramp" to get out my front door.


14 posted on 02/11/2011 7:23:35 AM PST by FrankR (The Evil Are Powerless If The Good Are Unafraid! - R. Reagan)
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To: henkster

Ha! When I was 21, I had the body of a fat slob. Now, 36 years later, I weigh 20 pounds less and have the body of a gym rat.

On the other hand, I can’t read Latin and Greek as easily as I could then.


15 posted on 02/11/2011 7:24:07 AM PST by proxy_user
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To: proxy_user

I’ll be 52 in April, don’t look it or feel it. I still have a 9 and 7 yr old at home.

I stay in shape, my hair is still cut in a long auburn shag, and I wear what I want.

I also still attend college classes.

Age is not a number to tell you when you should roll over and die. It’s the time you spend living....


16 posted on 02/11/2011 7:24:43 AM PST by mom4melody
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To: SeekAndFind

I will be 64 in May. I now have the time to be involved in church work and political activism. I enjoy being older,hopefully wiser and more able to contribute to things that are truly worthwhile.


17 posted on 02/11/2011 7:25:02 AM PST by thethirddegree (Islam is a vile, barbaric, perverted, depraved,seditious cult invented by a murdering pedophile)
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To: SeekAndFind

Signs of baby Boomers getting old yet in Denial:

1) Women wearing pants that say Juicy on the rear

2) Men STILL believing the Hooter waitress pouring their beer will go home with them and Light Their Fire

3) The Baby Boomer with the Micro Bus following the latest popular Jam Band—probably Phish—and telling every 20 something that Jerry is a better guitarist than Trey

4) Late 50 something women getting a Tramp Stamp

5) Baby Boomers who STILL vote Democrat

6) men with a ponytail and a bald head

7) baby Boomers who still attend drum circles on college campuses

8) Women who get every plastic surgery,face lift and facial injection in an attempt to make their 17 year old daughter’s boyfriend notice them.

9) Women wearing a Jonas Brother T-Shirt

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


18 posted on 02/11/2011 7:25:25 AM PST by Le Chien Rouge
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To: SeekAndFind

While I agree that the sex ads and other personal ads on TV are pretty disgusting, I’d find them disgusting no matter what age-group they were directed at.

But I don’t see why people should wither up and die at the age of 65. I don’t know how old Mona Charen is, but I’m sure she’d find it much more fun to be around an elderly mother, say, who was out running or taking part in events or learning a language or traveling and doing things than some self-absorbed lump who did nothing but become dependent and sit around obsessing on her aches and pains and her doctor’s visits.


19 posted on 02/11/2011 7:25:34 AM PST by livius
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To: DJ MacWoW

There is a pervasive immaturity in American society. People just do NOT want to grow up.

Just look at the magazines, films, tv shows, advertising...etc.

To watch this stuff, you’d think everyone in the US if under 35.

I had to quit listening to the radio because those clowns talk like everyone on earth is 12 years old!!


20 posted on 02/11/2011 7:30:45 AM PST by SMARTY (Conforming to non-conformity is conforming just the same.)
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