They REALLY don’t make ‘em like they used to.
When I was a mere slip of a gal, the Olds in my family… were like… OLD. They all looked like they needed a good iron they were so crinkly. They weren’t very mobile… we always had to be brought to the chair that they were in. They never had much to say I needed to hear… it was always a brief enquiry about how school was going and whether or not I was a good girl… they never really told me much. I doubted they had the energy for conversation. The highlight of my interaction with these decrepits would be the fact that there was usually a very sweet toffee secreted on their person somewhere - which would be given to me with ‘don’t tell your mother’ and a wink. But in general I was always pretty relieved when my ‘presentation’ to the Olds was over and I could get back on with the important business of being a kid.
But look around you…this type of oldie is just available anymore! It’s not just actors such as Dustin Hoffman, Donald Sutherland, Michael Caine and Robert Redford just don’t look like great grandpas should… it’s just in general old people are just FULL of life and aren’t shy about living it! My own father looks half is age and is much more active now (over a decade after offical retirement age) than he EVER was - and the STUFF he does...makes me just breathless... where DOES he get the energy!?
I picked up the local paper and found yet another story involving roller skating, bungee jumping, marathon running, pre-octogenarian! It’s common place to find myself mown down in the park by old ladies jogging... And it’s not just the vertical jogging they are getting into either! I just put down my paper with shock to find that a man called Mr Tokuda has just finished staring a series of porn films designed to inspire the elderly… he is 75! He says it’s the best thing he has ever done and he wants to inspire his age group to keep having fun.
Why on earth was I shocked though? Did I honestly expect the 15 year old of 1950 to have anything in common with the generations that came before them? For that’s what they are… today’s 75 year olds are the aged version of the youth they used to be.
Count it back and it works out they were 25 in 1959 so would have been amongst the first people to define what we now call youth culture. They lived their teens and their youthful adult years in a brave new world.
Theirs was a world of new technology – direct dial phones, satellite weather stations, Xerox machines and even etch-a-sketch had just come in! It was a time to celebrate new music with a little event called the Grammy awards just starting up and Juke Box Jury being premiered on TV. Scary new diseases had started to take their toll as the first human diagnosed with HIV died in the Congo that year. It was a time of changing fashions with the teddy boy era drawing to a close and clothing being more openly influenced by America and Italy.
The 75 year old today could have been a Greaser… wearing black leather and denim jeans looking outrageous on his motorbike, or a Beatnik... dressed all in black and being intense about poetry. Even the conventional youngsters of the day expressed themselves through unique tribal uniforms marking them out from previous generations– girls in polyester dirndl skirts supported by petticoats and worn with back to front cardigans, boys in neatly pressed clothing with small fashion details like suede shoes, or narrow ties.
This was an age group who were unafraid to be independent and find their own way. With the average age of leaving home being just 22years old in 1959… today’s 75 year old got out in the world over a decade before his 25 year old counterpart today would leave his parents nest. National service was still mandatory for 17-21 year olds, so a 25 year old lad in 1959 would have been through military training and as such learnt skills away from home… he may have even travelled as a consequence.
The 1950’s were a prosperous decade and young people were more affluent than any of their predecessors (who had a small matter of world wars to clear up). Today’s 75 year old would have been at liberty to enjoy the coffee houses, cinemas and dance halls of the era. It was the time when personal leisure became available to all classes.
So what am I saying… that today’s old person is likely to have done the following when 25 or younger? … patiently explained new technology to his parent, judged pop music on TV, bitched with their mates about the Grammies. Am I also saying that they have known about HIV a bit longer than YOU thought, have dressed outrageously and probably had more in common with a modern Emo than you do? Not to mention that they have been independent longer than you, know the value of a good night out with their mates… oh and has probably been taught by HM army how to silently kill. Is THAT what I am saying about today’s 75 year olds?
Yes… I am. Pretty much.
If we stop to think a second… is it really any surprise when you take that into account that today’s 75 year old was at the cutting edge of redefining youth, freedom, music and art that they don’t wish to just sit down and wait for God?
I say good luck to them. I’m glad that this extraordinary generation continue to be the Rebels they started out as: “We want to be free to do what we want to do! “ They may be 50 years older but it’s clear that now they are today’s old folk they have got far more to offer life than to just pass out the Werther’s.
Although you really should get a copy of Mr Tokuda’s movie… the article says he finds a WHOLE new way of doing just that!
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