h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I went for a longish walk with five acquaintances - women around 60 - the other day. Sadly the weather wasn't as up to it as we were, but we agreed that a cup of coffee afterwards would make the effort worth it.
So we went to the café and placed our orders:
Coffee? Yes please.
Cream? Oh yeah. And sugar!
Cake? Sure, what kinds do you have?
Chocolate? Great!
Apple pie? Even better!
With whipped cream? Of course!
And all of a sudden I was back with my grandma, her sisters and their friends of that generation and their smalltalk and I was asking myself: "What? Has nothing changed? Have these people never heard of mods, rockers, hippies and the youth revolution?"
I mean: People can live their lives the ways they want. No problem.
I was just - quite suddenly - surprised to realize that nothing seemed to have changed in 50 years. This was not the way I expected my generation to age

But it is comforting isn't it?

So - how should we age? I (64) have been watching my mother (99) age, and she is quite happy in herself, but I would try and aim for more. Although she was quite a sportswoman in her time she has let herself go and can only just hobble from room to room, spends the rest of the time sitting, most of it asleep. Everything is now done for her, although she can dress and wash herself and is still continent.

So I think, if I can keep going that long, I shall aim to stay fit (actually I'll have to *get* fit first) and force myself to do as much for myself as I can. Probably easier said than done.

Mental fitness and an interest in the outside world are also very important. Remind me of this in 20 years' time please.

I'm not sure I ever thought much about how my generation would age. We may have wondered about it, but ... wait! Some time ago I saw a comical drawing of people in a retirement home in the near future: The "inmates" were arguing about what music to hear in their common sitting room and were yelling and screaming at each other: "AC/DC - Pink Floyd - Hendrix - Stones!"
But I'm still 10 or more years away from the nursing home - I hope ...

Eh? What did you say?

Trouble is, the changes that we imagined to be permanent in the 1960s were as fleeting as a bunch of dandelion seeds. After the sideways motion of the 1970s, the establishment came back with a vengeance in the 1980s (Reagan, Thatcher, et al), not that it mattered much, because by then many of the rebellious teens of the `1960s were in their thirties, laboring to raise children and pay down mortgages. I thought that my generation (which was also *your* generation, Pierce) had somehow sold out, but Nature designs all of us to follow a life arc that pulls us away from what we thought we were were at 18.

On balance, I like Nature's plan, as it seems like a gift that keeps on giving. As a teenager, you don't yet know that someday you'll have an awesome set of life skills, the potential for which was in you all along.

And now, your sixty-something friends are processing life from yet another perspective. I would guess that at least of them (and probably more) have recently been caregivers for their own elderly parents. If things were tense between generations in the 1960s, chances are that four or five decades of subtly changing relationships have brought them to a place where they have learned to see across the generational divide.

Maybe some of your friends are happier than they've ever been before. That's a distinct possibility.

That is more than a distinct possibility, paulh. That's a fact. My grandma and her generation lived through two world wars and some pretty harsh times before, inbetween and after. In Germany. My companions the other day were born with golden spoons compared to that!
And that's great of course.
(Although you can't measure happiness in golden spoons alone, but that's another story.)

And like I said: People can live their lives the ways they want. I have no problems with that. Au contraire!

And I do see *some* changes. I think. For instance I have much more camaraderie with my children than I experienced between me and my parents. I feel blessed.

And I was wearing jeans and a T-shirt in the café the other day! Unthinkable back in the late 1950's and early 1960's when my grandma would take me to a café for some nice cake and hot chocolate. She would make sure I was in my best clothes and that my hair was kept short and orderly combed. My grandfather was a very well respected barber and hairdresser in our little town after all, so long hair was completely out of the question.

Yes. Clothing customs have become much more casual. Hats have either died out entirely, or have seen a huge shift to baseball caps. No more do I see fedoras or other "old man" hats. In the coldest part of winter, my hat of choice is the woven ski cap. People of all ages seem to wear them.

Footwear is much more casual as well. Some men still wear formal shoes, and some women still go around in high heels, but sneakers and running shoes are so often worn that black running shoes are now accepted when worn with formal wear.

Some so called intelligent person/s may many years ago, counted the time/s the sun/moon went round etc and "age"(months/years etc) was invented

but! yep! the body ages but the MIND stays where it wants My body is 69yrs this yearBUT! my mind is still a kid/youth So why change perfection
I prefer being idiot/daft than a aged serious person

The best approach is to refuse to act your age. I think that you are a prime example of that approach.

my mam always said "why don't you act your age" I replied with "do I have to act something different each birthday then ?"
I don't act, I'm me!

I hear you!

I'm acting very inappropriate for my age. If this constitutes a problem it'll have to be somebody else's. I flatly refuse to make it mine

I grow less enthusiastic about stairs as I grown older. I wish I could slide up the banister like Mary Poppins.

You can still slide down the banister like Magenta.

Be careful, though. Your bones are probably not as strong as they once were. I know mine aren't.

And what I meant to say was actually: "My age is getting very inappropriate for my behaviour."

I've found a solution to the 'acting your age', thing; I do. just, I'm stubbornly refusing to accept I'm no longer only 17 ....

But what about acne? Don't you get suspicious when you look in the mirror and don;t see any?

2legs hasn't used mirrors since he lost his eyesight and my acne has been replaced with rosacea so I believe none of us misses acne much

When we all have the money to travel afar to all.

Like in past hootoo meets I've been able to go to, you'll be surprised how age don't enter the equation

"2legs hasn't used mirrors since he lost his eyesight and my acne has been replaced with rosacea so I believe none of us misses acne much " [Pierce]

I will admit that I had not remember that fact about 2Legs. On some level, though, it would be true that he would not see acne in a mirror -- or anything else, granted.

I am happy that you have the whole family of flowering plants called Rosaceae, Pierce. Such beautful blooms would surely be better than acne.

I never had any achne as a teenager... so its nicely ironic that I get it now, thanks to replacement testosterone injections - though oddly its mainly limited to my chest and back having said which, its calmed down a lot of late W is adiment I'm regressing in age... or at least maturity... which, if true, is either frightening or.... terrifying its not too difficult, IMO, to have a state of mind woefully at odds with one's age on paper...

I guess I was as wrong as I could possibly be, 2Legs. Oh, well, acne won't kill you. That's as much as I can get right.