Some lunatic gave me a magazine – the Special Housing Edition installment of Senior Living (Vancouver Islands 50+ Active Lifestyle Magazine). Oh my GAWD!
First off, it seems their definition of senior is 50 and their definition of active is brunch! There are numerous pictures of so-called seniors reading, walking, petting dogs, drinking coffee with other seniors and getting in and out of special bathtubs. Whew! How do they keep it up?
Then there is a picture of a blond woman in pretty good shape reading on a beach and thinking, “I wish that I’d moved in sooner!” She is about 60 and is referring to a retirement village in Parksville that arranges her ‘activities’ and makes her meals. The 60 year old women I know are climbing the local mountains, learning Mandarin in Shensin or working with lepers in India. Who are these people in Parksville?
10 pages of the magazine are dedicated to listing assisted-living residences. Some features: ‘walker friendly’, ‘raised gardens’, ’emergency call service’ and HandyDart. For a real exciting time, there are escorted walks, group shopping and supervised gardening.
I have no idea why she didn’t enroll sooner.
I guess what I am saying is this: there is a modern mindset of dependence/helplessness that prevails about ‘seniors’ and that word, in itself, is a mindset. I am 63. I think I am just starting to sneak up on the s-word. Not quite there but close. Knees are there. Lower back is there. But the rest of me is still middle-aged. OK, maybe my waistline is on the cusp. But, generally speaking, I am NOT a senior. But these Parksville-types are getting special bathtubs in their fifties! Or, at least, special bathtubs are being marketed to 50 year olds.
Somebody must be buying them.
One thing is for sure; out here you are young if you are in your fifties – still a sex symbol (if you ever were). 50 year-olds are still wet behind the ears and not in the least because they are still flying about in boats in all kinds of weather. 60 year-olds are feeling their joints but are otherwise in the prime of their life and still learning, socializing and traveling to Mexico or Hong Kong. The 70 year-olds are the main contingent, the backbone of the community. They have the power. They have the wisdom. And they still have the ability to exercise it. The 80 year olds are the ones whose health we inquire about but they still get in their own wood, do their own shopping and kill their own bears and skin ém. Even the 90 years olds are a feisty old bunch.
You don’t get old as fast out here, I guess.
Our Off the Grid Home 
I'm working at the top of a 14ft ladder today in the snow, I may be a candidate for a special bath soon! But wait I have one already! I built it into our self contained guest cabin(with level entry). I tell people it's for our aging friends and family but secretly I know it's part of my exit plan. If I wait till I need it I won't be putting it in myself(read cheap). It's very efficient in space and water use, very japanese, I actually first used a sit up bath in the pyrennes trapped in a snow storm with my first wife,good memories. I see the consequences of aging , disease and accident all around me and have no illusions that I am invincible. At least I won't get shipped of to Parksville… because I have my own hospice room right here with a nice view and good memories.Stayweird
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Who is a senior? Not me (at 70 and still running, or trying to, a business). Of course marrying a "child bride" (now 62) and who really runs things, helps, but retirement? A few years ago our receptionist interrupted our production meeting to tell me that a London Life agent was in the foyer to talk to me about Freedom 55. In the loudest voice possible I shouted out, "Tell him he's 10 years too late!"I read an article about how to keep one's brain active. Turns out that puzzles and Sudoku are of minimal benefit. Learning new languages is good, likewise taking up a musical instrument, but most important, is having projects! Yes projects in the planning, projects underway. So, good news for Read Islanders, esp. those "Off the Grid". Even on the days when the Scotch is open, I suspect projects are being planned. Will they ever all be completed? Of course not! That would be the end for sure.See you in a few months Dave and Sally. (Let's see, what project is on our menu?")
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How did "senior citizen" become a derogatory comment? I thought it denoted respect like elder or senior statesman. I imagine the classic greeks saving a spot in a gathering for the "senior citizen'. Does it really just mean "oldest consumer" as a vulnerable demographic to marketing hawks?Stayweird
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Dave, how old are you? Yes we know you are 63, but part of your brain still thinks that you're a handsome teenager. All well and good, no harm done until you look in the mirror. When you see something shiny, it's your teenage brain that perks up and says "I need that" (boats, motors and back-to-the-land tech toys notwithstanding). Your 63 year old brain isn't quite as impulsive especially when there are mirrors close by. Now if you are in your eighties and it's starting to get harder to lift your aching body into the bath tub your eighty year old brain might not be sure what to do about it. But when you pick up the latest copy of Zoomer magazine and see a svelte 55 or 60 year getting in a special side opening bathtub, your teenage brain wants to climb in there with her/him. The 55s aren't buying them, Dave. They're being used as bait to market special bathtubs to much older people. Hey didn't you used to do some modeling on the side? A lean mean (feral but suave)sixtysomething like you could be selling wheelchairs and motorized scooters to ninetysomethings. But they must never find out that you really descend several flights of stairs down to get in your boat where you scavenge for stray logs floating on the ocean so you can haul them up on shore, and then haul them up to the rock where you buck em to length and split them before stacking them to dry on the woodpile. Happy New Year
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Hay David I don't know what you did but you are now the top of the page on google blogs. we are at kino bay mexico and that is as far south as we are going. Can't wait till we get back and to the island. I hope John Harts comment about projects keeping your mind alert and your body young. You and I are going to live to be a hundred no problem. Love you guys John R
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