A Voice of the Retired, Labels Don’t Fit.

Retired still has a connation of old. I may be retired but in no way do I think of myself as old. In some ways I am physically challenged, I can no longer dunk a basketball. Realistically, I was never that good at basketball anyway. Retired means unemployed to me, not old.

Senior, to me, still means of high school. Somehow I have difficulty ascribing that term to myself. Age wise I may qualify but mentally, not a chance. It may be genetic. When my 93 year old mother was rehabbing with her new hip she declined to eat in the dining room because she didn’t want to hang out with those “old” people. I would guess that she was the oldest person on her floor by at least 10 years.


If neither senior or retired is a label I can accept, what is? I have no clue, I answer to old guy, poppop, hey you and other nom de plumes but I think we have to accept that labeling is in so many ways demeaning. Look at Jacqueline Smith, does that look senior to you?

Admittedly I have little interest in going out to play football or even to shoot hoops anymore but decrepit isn’t in my vocabulary. Let some hoodlum with ill intent address my grandchildren and he would no doubt be surprised at the successful violent reaction of an old guy who lifts and works out 7 days a week.

So for you “young’uns” who most likely are the only folks, who are reading blogs, keep in mind that if you want your voice to be heard, you may want to listen to the voices of others, regardless of age or label.