Sunday, December 28, 2008

Am I old yet?

On this trip to
St. Louis I've thought a lot about aging as I have several aunts and uncles who are over 90, so the term "old age" has been brought up a lot. At 96 my aunt Katy is my oldest living relative and not doing well. My Uncle Barney is over 90, in decent shape and lives in a very nice old folks home. To me, they are really old!

That's a picture of me and my nephew Nick at our Christmas dinner. I just found out that he thinks I'm a really "old person". Pretty depressing!!

See, I hadn't really thought much about it, but our age differences (30 plus years) are about the same as me to my older aunts and uncle, so it makes sense, but it hurt!

I don't want to be classified as 'really old' by anyone. He made a few jokes about me living in a retirement community and sitting around all day with the old folks playing bingo and shuffleboard. So while I don't feel old yet, either chronologically or physically, it was interesting to see how I'm viewed by the younger generation.

While it's hard to accept, because of my chronological age, I'm now considered part of the "young-old" (ages 55 to 74). Check out article at http://ohioline.osu.edu/ss-fact/0101.html

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