Old Peeps

This is how older people are depicted: going on bus rides, hobbling with a cane, walking slowly, and going to the doctor's office.

Why is that?  Because so many of them do it!  Why don't we ever see pictures of dynamic middle aged men and women or even extremely active men and women in their 70s and 80s who dress well, don't smell like moth balls, have all their teeth, and still beat around in their own vehicle??  Aren't there any out there like that?  My dad is 80 and he falls into the latter group.  I have other friends who are well into their 80s that REGULARLY go to the gym and do fun stuff.  I definitely don't want to be crotchety and wobbly and dumb about new and upcoming ways of communicating!

It doesn't have to be that way.  I think some people just CHOOSE that by not keeping themselves in good condition, exercising and actually caring about their outward appearance.  Plus, they say stuff like, "I'm just OLD..." and "well, at MY age..." indicating that they've already given up on whatever topic they happen to be discussing.

Old people should be dynamic and have credibility by staying relevant in the day we live in, not by just giving up, making excuses about why they aren't keeping up and then blaming it on their age.  That's why we don't have very many ELDERLY role models.  In other countries, the elders are to be respected.  Not in the United States.  And it's not because they SHOULDN'T be respected, but because they take themselves out of the running for BEING respected by speaking defeatist language and lagging.

Gruesome Discovery!

In my 30s I began to notice that most men and women in their 50s looked kind of old and frumpy. Their skin was ruddy and it appeared that some (mostly women) had tried to recapture the look of when they were in their 30s...only now they were 50 and it didn't fit.  Women tend to do this more than men. Women will go get their hair bleached or blonde-highlighted, let it grow long, and try to wear youthful clothes that look bizarre when worn on an over-50 year old.  Men let hair grow in their ears and let their eyebrows grow out like Albert Einstein's (long and bushy)!

I never wanted to get to be 50!  Look what happens to people when they turn 50.  Almost overnight, really strange things begin to happen to your body...all over!

My paternal grandmother (Maw Maw) was always elegant, poised, and well-dressed until she died.  In fact, she was immaculate.  She kept her nails and hair perfectly manicured, she wore beautiful clothes that looked elegant for her age, she always wore cute shoes and sandals, she was youthful in spirit, fun, and open-minded.  To me, she just didn't fit the bill of somebody old...even though by my standards she WAS old.  I bet she didn't have more than a 6th grade education either.  I never heard her talk about high school or activities she participated in.  However, she had excellent diction, was articulate, and a FABULOUS cook!  It never occurred to any of us that she didn't finish high school.  I never asked.  I just assumed she did, but she didn't.  My mother once made some kind of disparaging remark about her being uneducated.  I was mortified.  And I didn't care!  That's the only way I knew that she probably didn't finish school.

Getting "old" is gonna happen!  I never thought it would happen to me, and as it started sneaking up on me, I remembered my grandmother's elegance and class.  I made a decision that as I progressed into middle and older age, I would definitely be classy, smart, poised, fit, well-dressed, and dynamic.

This is my story unfolding into the 50 year mark and beyond.  Some of it is personal and I have decided to go ahead and share parts of it that I probably would never discuss with people randomly.  My discoveries and travels into the world of the middle aged woman just might help others to overcome what our society bills us as frumpy, funky, and irrelevant.  We don't have to be.  I'm not going to be!