Retirement in The Villages, FL
A Common Old Age Stereotype, the World Over
Even when separated by 60 years and 5,200 miles, people had the same reaction.
Synopsis
- Age questions are always dangerous, even when required as part of the job. Young people seem to think retired people sit all day in their rocking chairs. The poor desk clerk at the museum in Budapest, Hungary learned differently. Her look of shock was priceless.
Trapped in Hungary
We were trapped for three extra days in Budapest, Hungary by the hurricane in Florida. So, we decided to visit the Military museum, which was in easy walking distance. However, it is not free. We had to get a ticket.
The poor cashier, who must have been about 18 or 20, squirmed and hesitantly asked what my age was. I’m not used to pretty young ladies asking my age, and she seemed very uncomfortable asking, too. When I said, “73,” she said, “Oh, you get in for free. That’s for everyone 70 and older.” She looked relieved and didn’t ask my wife’s age.
We talked while my wife tied her shoes. She asked where we were from.
I replied, “The Villages, a retirement community in Florida. We don’t have any museums, but we go dancing to a live concert on the Square every day.” She asked, “What kind of dancing?” My reply, “Rock & Roll.”
The expression of shock was priceless.
I don’t think that anyone her age could envision a large group our age, like the dozens of large tour groups going through her town square every day, dancing to Rock & Roll.
When I was her age
I know just how she felt. Right after I graduated from college, the first week at my new job, the keypunch operators started asking me to guess their age. Nothing scared me more than guessing an age that was too old. Even my initial project, solving 40 equations with 90 unknowns, was less scary than that.
So, to avoid telling any of the women that they looked old, I subtracted five years from my initial guess. Since my initial guess was always younger than their actual age, I was really popular and everyone wanted me to guess their age after that. They were all in their thirties, but I suppose looking younger was important in 1969.
My generation — same response
In a similar vein, we went to lunch after our writer’s club meeting last week. One of the men I was sitting with congratulated the other for joining the octogenarian club on his birthday (both were over 80).
The younger one was talking about how things had changed with different activities when I mentioned that my wife and I go dancing on the square for two hours every day. His eyes bulged out and he said, “You dance for two hours? Every day?”
He was surprised. He would be even more surprised to hear that we danced for one hour on the Square yesterday and three more hours later that night at the City Fire night club.
I got the same response from the old men in Florida that I got from the young lady in Hungary.
People have a lot more in common than they think.
Definition and Related Articles
Keypunch: punches holes into cards that are read by the computer, the only way to enter data and programs in 1969. There were no cell phones, tablets, internet, laptops, PC’s or monitors connected to a computer, just thousands of cards.
