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At 65, I’m Starting to Understand What Growing Old Means
That’s What the Sixties are For
“Once we get outta the ’80s, the ’90s are going to make the ’60s look like the ‘50s.”
That quote is from Huey Walker, Dennis Hopper’s character in the film, Flashback. Like most people, I thought he was talking about the decades, but as I just turned 65, I now believe he was talking about aging. Hopper, who is now 84 and made the film Easy Rider 52 years ago, knows more about that subject than I do, almost twenty years more.
As we age, we all tend to characterize each phase by the decade, teens, twenties, thirties, etc. In each decade, we also face a shift in what we consider old. I remember playing foosball when I was 17 and balking when some old guys came in. They were in their twenties.
But the sixties are a pivotal decade. I retired. I down-sized. And at 65, I received my first social security check. I am now what the British refer to as a pensioner. And, living in an over-55 community, I’ve discovered you stay in that category for the rest of your life. Ther are many people here the same age as my father, but I’ve come to think of them as peers and contemporaries, a status my dad will never enjoy.
I’ve discovered something else about the sixties that I’ve never heard of before. Maybe I…
