RfM doesn't go along with racial or gender slurs. Ugly names and insults against minorities, handicapped groups, women, and also pets can be deleted.

Yet, nasty slurs and insults against older people run rampant.

Once, a poster claimed that "old geezers" over the age of forty do not have sex. LOL

Someone recently suggested that a main reason to dislike GAs is because they are old geezers who, again, do not have sex.

I think any authority figure who abuses others needs to be called to task. I don't think it's fair to suggest that being old is something shameful.

I remember a story reported on RfM about a bishop who forced a family to take in an 87 year old man. The only available place for him to sleep was in the same bed as the family's young son. The bishop knew this elderly man had spent time in jail for sexually abusing boys of that age, but the bish assumed he was too old to do it again.

The bishop was wrong. The pervert tormented the boy for months and used threats to keep him from telling his parents. This guy was old, but that didn't stop him from doing evil.

This is only one example.

I'm sure that many kindly old couples continue to have sex long after youngsters think this is possible. They might not brag about it because they have nothing to prove and think it's no one's business.

There might be frail older people who do nothing but sit in rocking chairs, but that's a stereotype and I don't think it's fair to suggest that this is what everyone over a certain age does 24/7.

Does anyone know of examples, famous or personal, like Grandma Moses who started painting as she aged?

I had a friend who wrote several books, was still giving lectures, and was keeping his doctor's training current when he was well into his nineties.

You’re right, calling the 15 “old geezers” is insensitive. Do you prefer “closed minded bigots”?

Babyloncansuckit Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You’re right, calling the 15 “old geezers”
> is insensitive. Do you prefer “closed minded
> bigots”?


Yep! There you go. That's the label! ;) LOL

-Dennis

As someone who works with older adults, I totally agree. "Old" is just a state of mind and age is just chronological.

We had a beautiful resident who was 103 and she often told stories about her teen years working in an orange packing house.

Another good one was her parents had a little grocery store on the Oklahoma/Arkansas border. One side of the street was OK and the other side was Ark.

So pleeeez, knock off "the old geezer" talk. BTW, we are all going to be "older adults" someday.

But I will never act my age; maybe my shoe size!

-Stop the ageism Dennis

Cheryl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm sure that many kindly old couples continue to
> have sex long after youngsters think this is
> possible.

My dad died of a heart attack at age 81. After my step-mother died, my step-sister told me that my step-mother had told her that my dad kept up a vigorous sex life right up to the very end of his life.

When my Grandma married my Grandpa, she was a school teacher---and in North Dakota at that time, a prospective teacher needed only to have a high school diploma (which she had, but my Grandpa did not...he had been taken out of school after the third grade so he could work his family's farm). After she married, and as soon as she was pregnant, my Grandpa told her that her responsibility was to stay home and raise their oldest son (who would soon be followed by a younger son).

Grandma LOVED teaching school, and she was exceptionally good at it. She could take students of any ability level and then show them, and inspire them, to achieve their maximum potentials. She REALLY was an exceptionally good teacher...

...and I think Grandpa, though he never, ever admitted it, was possibly a bit jealous of her having a high school diploma (which sort of put her in a somewhat higher social class in rural North Dakota at that time), let alone her achievements as a teacher.

She acquiesced to Grandpa's wishes, and she quit her teaching job to raise their two sons. At some point, they moved to rural eastern Washington state, and then (at the urging of Grandma's siblings, who had migrated ahead of her), to Southern California. Her sons became young men, they got jobs, they married, they had children...and Grandma stayed home and baked wonderful pies. All this time, she yearned to get back to teaching, but she knew Grandpa would probably object, so she stayed silent.

At some point, when I was in elementary school, Grandma and Grandpa were home alone one day and she said: "Fred, I am going to go back to school and get my college degree so I can get a teaching credential...and then I am going to teach school again."

He looked at her, and (with the signature twinkle in his eye that I always loved him for) said: "Well, Emma, I guess you're old enough to decide for yourself."

Grandma immediately enrolled at her local state college, and simultaneously, she began taking as many as she could of her required classes from the University of California correspondence system. As I remember, it took her less than three years to get her four-year Bachelor's degree, and before she even had her credential, she was already employed as a teacher in her rural school district (they were having a teacher shortage, so they hired her as a "temporary," probationary, teacher).

When she graduated from American River College, I was there (with my sister and my parents) and I was SO PROUD of her!!! There were all of these twenty-year-olds on stage, wearing caps and gowns... plus MY GRANDMA!!!

She taught for the next about twenty years (she was over the mandatory retirement age for teachers, but they kept her on by using a year-by-year, "temporary" exception to the "rule"). When, finally, she was forced to retire from the public school system, she went over to the Catholic school system. She was the most totally irreligious person I have ever known (I do not think she EVER had a religious thought in her entire life), and she told them: I will teach everything but religion, and I will NOT lead prayers (she had been told that in Catholic schools, they prayed a lot). They said fine: a nun would come in to teach the religious part of the curriculum, and would come in to lead morning (etc.) prayers.

Grandma taught in the Catholic schools in her area for about ten years, and then my Grandpa died...and my parents told her she needed to quit teaching because she was, in the near future, going to have to move with them to the East Coast (where my father had a new job). Once again, she very reluctantly did what she was told. :(

When she stopped teaching, she was in her late 80s or early 90s.

I do agree with your point, Cheryl. Ageism, and ageist slurs, are both inaccurate as well as discriminatory in nature. In my personal opinion, and just like racist or homophobic or sexist slurs, it is time for us to go beyond these kinds of injustices in perception and expression.

Go Grandma!

You're never too old to have a happy childhood.

:o)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2017 10:51AM by Shummy.

Berkeley Breathed? I can't find an earlier credited author, and I can't remember when and where I first read it...

But I was definitely a Bloom County afficionado.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Weinberg#"Don't_trust_anyone_over_30";

Except the people over 30 who tell you that?

CZ (who has old people cred, proved by the mounds of AARP junk mail addressed to him)

I don't like the word geezer. Has an unpleasant sound. I will answer to old fool or old goat though. The kids (in their forties) at work now insist on climbing ladders for me even though I still can. I chuckle at how I look to them. I make them laugh though and I am still the cornerstone of the business.

I understand the point Cheryl makes. Seems like too many "isms" being attached to everything. Ageism hurts like any other ism.

I remember when I was 15 and I thought the thirty-year-olds were ancient. Now they look like kids to me and I would swear all the twenty year olds are about 12.

I don't like grouping all people together and generalizing. I avoid it as best I can but slip up once in a while. I think people mostly treat you in a one on one situation as to how you present yourself. Your spark has to shine through. For me its the one on one that counts the most.

Some of the people I enjoy most are in "old fools" like me. Still going strong, better than ever in most ways, and seasoned nicely. Just hired a 59 year old and a 62 year old and they are fantastic.

Some of the older people I know are cranky, have stopped evolving, and expect to be catered to. I wouldn't hurt them in anyway and I do avoid them. What words should I use when I think of them?

This leaves me wondering if never using a term like old geezer is also a generalization and lumping all old people together. I don't wish to be part of a herd.

I will probably continue to use the word Gerontocracy for the Big 15 until I'm 110. I will probably use a lot of words I shouldn't but the tone and the wink in the eye will be there if I do.

I agree. Admins: please put a stop to the ageism. I'm in my 60s and the bad attitudes toward those who've reached a mature age is a very cruel thing I keep running into.

Yesterday I was at a pharmacy waiting for service and the young female pharmacy tech was on a difficult phone call with a customer. She got off the phone and exclaimed that she didn't want to get old. She said this right in front of me. I tried to be compassionate and explain to her that being "old" doesn't make you grumpy.

I've also run into young people who like to make comments about putting you in a nursing home. There's just a tremendous amount of cruelty toward older people - older women especially. Women are already treated as nearly worthless in much of society, and as we age we are never looked on as growing "dignified" looking, while older men are.

Any efforts that can be made to decrease ageism on these boards will be appreciated. Thanks.

I was in the hospital for two days. The nurse assumed I couldn't be trusted to walk two or three steps to the toilet. So they booby trapped my bed and kept me confined to it which gave me deep vein thrombosis. Now I have to take medication for the rest of my life and see a specialist every two to three months forever.

At the end of the hospital stay, the nurse admitted that she thought everyone over 60 always got dizzy when they stood up. I never have that problem. Being confined was wasteful and detrimental.

And this isn't the only experience of this kind.

Every year after 2013 my primary care health providers (nurses and the doctor) look at me hard to make sure I'm not lying after I answer 'none' to the question, "How many times have you fallen in the past year?"

I could go on and on at the 'ageism' I have to put up with just because I'm old, but disgustingly healthy, or so-ish... I had to add the so-ish because I'm busy being cured of a condition which does not affect me, but can't be ignored, lest it change its mind.

That sounds borderline criminal! I'm surprised the nurse was allowed to do that.

And lo, the Kingdom of Geezer send out word to all the world that it would no longer be the butt of jokes.

The world laughed.

The people of Geezer were wroth and declared war and sent forth their armies and laid waste to the world until there was not one organized stone atop another; the world of 'not Geezer was laid low, and no one EVER made fun of Geezer again.

Let him with ears, hear. Let him with a brain, understand. Let her with eyes, ogle. Let those with arms and brows, salute. Let those with toilets, flush.

Amen

And yea, never look backeth.

My parents were married for 66 1/2 years before my Dad passed away in July, my Dad 87 and my Mom 89. There was Viagra in the medicine cabinet.

What about a person in his/her 70s calling a person in his/her 60s a geezer? Would that be permissible, in terms of political correctness?

I was deleted for complaining about an older poster on this board who described children in her class who couldn't keep up as "dummies" and "dummoids." I was called a "bully" and repeatedly had my post removed, simply for questioning why it was okay to use those hurtful labels. I'm not really sure why certain posts are removed and others are not.

My mother said to me the other day (she'll be 90 in March), "I must be starting to look old. People keep calling me 'dear.'" LOL

It still shocks me that I'm 60. I still type up people my age and think they are older than me. I don't think the younger generation realize that most of us always feel younger than we are.

I do have problems with falling and nowadays I do get dizzy because of medication I'm on, but I've always been someone who fell. I am rather tall and I don't have a very good center of gravity. Never have. My daughter was worried about me because I tipped over and bumped my head on a shelf at Disneyland a week or so ago. It just so happened, I'd just been on California Dreamin roller coaster and Guardians of the Galaxy several times in a row, and it was dark with a lot of lights flashing all over. That makes me dizzy. Not only that, but I had been going all day long with very little rest. I was fine. I didn't fall down, just bumped my head a little, and then walked back to the hotel a mile away. She kept watching me on the walk home.

I wonder what I do when she isn't around, which isn't very often. Somehow I got to this age without much help from anyone while raising her and I still do.

We aren't dead yet.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2017 02:40PM by cl2.

I more and more frequently encounter the attitude that youth is an accomplishment, rather than a fleeting moment. Like a three-year-old who signs his finger painting with both his name and age, except these "kids" are in their thirties.

On another board I frequent, there's an irritating guy whose posts are always laced with references to his age, and that he's a millennial, as if that imbues him with a bunch of understood qualities and characteristics (all "good," of course).

He recently vented about his search for a piano, and how horrible it was that he had to negotiate with a bunch of old people in order to do so. He also claimed that he's "pretty sure" he's one of the few people his age to buy a Steinway (again, a triumph of his youth). His saving strategy? He lives at home with his parents, so he can save money and spend it on what he wants to. So, he doesn't like "old people," but he exploits them.

Some of these ignorant and entitled kids forget that it was older people who built the world he lives in, and provide the basic resources upon which he depends.

It is true that young people often ignore the contributions of their elders. I think, however, that to some degree that is healthy. A two-year-old is essentially a narcissist, perceiving the world as something that should be at his or her disposal. Teenagers are largely the same way. Those are stages that every well-developed adult went through in some measure. As Neil Young intimated, every young person should "get to be cool" at the proper time and season.

None of that detracts from your point that some young (and old, and male and female, etc.) people can be insufferable.

I'd add too, however, that it is easy for older people to exaggerate their contributions to younger people. It was, after all, the baby boom generation that cut taxes while expanding spending and thereby drove the national debt in the US and other major economies to astronomical levels. That represented a massive transfer of wealth from future taxpayers to those who are in middle age today and hence was an act of monumental selfishness.

It has often seemed to me that that there is a serious imbalance in democratic systems. By definition, all the decisions are made by adults and children are not represented. If children and adults have different interests, as they do when it comes to the use of credit to finance present consumption, young people's disenfranchisement is devastatingly unfair. People today live far beyond their means, and their children will pay the bill.

Lot's Wife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> their children will pay the bill.


Well, it'll have to be other peoples children, because I don't have any children.

It was those with political power that transferred the wealth, not us run of the mill Boomers. There is too much Boomer bashing in society. I'm an older Boomer, and we worked like dogs trying to get ahead while raising a family.

I do see a big difference between the older Boomers and younger ones. Those born from about the mid '50s on tend to be more materialistic, IMO.

Every generation thinks it worked harder than later generations and that later generations are "different" or spoiled. Likewise, every generation thinks it deserves what it has and more.

The bottom line is that if anyone who voted for the Republicans or the Democrats effectively voted for deficits and transfers of wealth from the young to the middle-aged and old because both parties have pushed some combination of tax cuts and spending and entitlement increases. Because they were, and are, numerically dominant, the baby boomers voted for their own interests through parties that told them what they wanted to hear.

People all over the world work like dogs. That's what life is like. The difference is that since the 1970s the general trend has been, with a small exception in the middle Clinton years, towards ever larger budget deficits and, since the early 1980s, a gradual ramping up of household debt.

People today live far beyond the value of the work they did and do. That's the purpose of credit and debt: they shift tomorrow's purchasing power to today. They allow people to enjoy the fruits of future labor--in this case the labor of people who are young today or not even born.

In this particular instance the baby boomers deserve all the criticism they get. In fact, they deserve more; for no major political today party would survive if it told the middle-aged and elderly that they are impoverishing their grandchildren. But that is what they have done.

Every generation is "played" into the hands of corrupt politicians. We pay through the nose as they go laughing all the way to their untouchable offshore holdings. Just like the Morg, the name of the game is to live high off the backs of the masses.

It isn't corrupt politicians that did this. Corrupt politicians did many bad things, but voters voted for ever more social services and ever lower taxes.

How popular is it to raise taxes versus cutting taxes? Which is more popular: expanding entitlements or cutting them? How many baby boomers are willing to give up their mortgage interest deduction, which is a huge gift to the upper middle class.

More times than not, people act in their own self-interest. If a huge cohort comprises people born in the same time period, they can prevail at the polls relative to other generations. They might, for instance, vote themselves all sorts of healthcare, housing, social security and other benefits and then insist that tax rates go down rather than up. They might complain when politicians raise the debt limit but ultimately not do anything about it.

Does that paragraph sound like anybody you know? Because to me it sounds like the vast majority of the voters who supported the GOP and the Democratic Party for the last sixty years. It sounds like the baby boom generation. It wasn't corrupt politicians who did this, it was voters.

Baby boomers wanted huge entitlements and low taxes. So they voted people into power, and kept them there, who oversaw an increase in the national debt from 32% in 1981 to over 110% today. If you add in the social security and other promises, the situation is muchh worse. The bottom line is that boomers have created a future tax burden of two year's GDP that their kids and grandkids will have to pay off.

No one is hiding the ball here. Follow the money.

I'm going to add that the notion that Americans "pay through the nose" for others' benefit is generally not true.

Is there corruption? Yes. Sometimes great corruption. But anyone who thinks Americans pay too much for government services has no idea what those services cost. And in any case, those people never paid for the services in any case: they just had the government borrow.

The baby boom generation thought they deserved everything they could get, and they stole it from their children, who will pay higher taxes either directly or through inflation, receive fewer benefits, and retire 5-10 years later. It isn't fair for the people who received the vast majority of the benefits from all that deficit spending to turn around now and say, "no, it is I who am the victim."

It isn't. It's the next two generations.

Slight correction...

>
> People today live far beyond their means,
> and their children will pay the bill.
>

I believe that they have been paying the bill for awhile now. I would be more explicit but the statute of limitations has not run.

I'm an old geezer...and the 15 are older geezers than me. Whatever....if yer an old geezer and being called one offends you....cowboy TF up and put on yer big boy/girl pants cupcake!...lol

The problem is when "old geezer" is the reason given for hating someone and assuming they are evil or worthless.

Agreed. My mom had a doctor who thought she wasn't worth treating when she was 80 and in kidney failure. Same British asshole that had disrespected my wife when she sought treatment for our handicapped daughter years before. Dad fired his ass and got my doc on the case to save her life.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2017 10:25PM by Lethbridge Reprobate.

I have done contract work at nursing homes where I saw up close institutional elder abuse. In exchange for all SS bennies and whatever else they had, they got to lay in bed to writhe and moan from bedsores caused by sheer neglect.

I'll never forget the smell and the bad taste it all left in my mouth.

Fast forward to when I was obliged to place my own dear 95 year old Mom in a care facility I remembered that bad taste.

I feel fortunate that she went to a care center that actually cared........which they did for her til the day she passed on with dignity.

Thank you once again Cheryl for a highly topical thread.

I have two main complaints about the advanced ages of most of the Q15. One is that they don't get a choice of whether they would like to retire and are often worked to the point of absurdity. The second complaint is that for a variety of reasons, the Q15 as a group are seriously out of touch with mainstream society. And their generally advanced ages are a part of that.

Bottom line, I think that elderly people should have a choice about how to spend the last third of their lives. And I think the Mormon church would benefit from having at least *some* younger leaders. Or at least leaders who have made an effort to keep up with modern times.

I hope I have helped to improve society as an aging boomer. This site being a significant part of that. We, wife and I, try not to be piggish by living in a smaller house than we could of or could buy. I enjoy being with college students and try to give good advice when asked. I volunteer at a community college in their music program. My wife volunteers at an elementary school 3 times per week.

We, as admins, will do a better job of this - attacks on older people. I recently turned 66. I play 3 different instruments in 4 bands and orchestras. I go to the gym 4-5 times per week. I am active with my white water boat and use it regularly on a nearby white water river. I started this site and keep it running with the tremendous help other admins, some of whom are my age. I believe I am more active than many 30 and 40 year olds. Fortunately I am healthy, not everyone is this lucky. When the medicare health official stopped by this summer for an evaluation, he commented that it is rare that I only take a blood pressure medication, which I have taken since my mid 20's. There is at times need for some relief from osteoarthritis using a common anti-inflammatory. My eyesight is my biggest issue. A combination of ocular rosacea and Fuch's dystrophy cause some anguish and discouragement at times. At this age we all have something and it humbles us perhaps making us more aware of our mortality.

Try not to be too hard on us older folks here. We are not the enemy. The advice the 'seniors' of this group here give is outstanding. I hope the newbies and younger members of this community appreciate it.

RfM helped me - and countless others - in our struggle out of the Mormon church. It probably has helped keep others from being sucked into it.

And about that age stuff: I'm 70, don't care who knows it, and claim the right to use the word "geezer" whenever I choose. (DH and I both say things like "old geezers like us. . ." a lot.)

Now that I am retired from a job that I consistently loathed for 30 years (but couldn't afford to leave), and am married to the love of my life, I am a very happy person.

We have enough income that we don't have to live in terror from month to month (I've done that, and it was awful.) We can afford the occasional indulgence. If a new book comes out by one of my favorite authors, I can buy it. If that isn't luxury, I don't know what is.

Being old is like being on a mountaintop. You can see EVERYTHING from where you are. Provided you brought your glasses, of course!

Eric, if there's a heaven may you revel in the treasure you have laid up there.

And if there isn't a heaven may you revel in it here.

Either way, Merry Exmas my good man.

Since this is still up, I was wondering if an old fart is less stinky than a young fart.

Hey, Cheryl. Mid-way to 70 from sixty. When I walk past a mirror I wonder who the old dude is who stole my body. Inside I’m still 18. Life is so good. Got all my teeth. Hair still dark brown. Bowels still work. Take care of a variety of livestock. Work outside in subzero temps. Out do the younger guys at work. For me, being older is just fine. So, as Mom use to say, ‘sticks and stones...’. Never worry. Don’t care what others say.

Works for me.

I miss Ruby-The-Diva and the Stalker Dog...

They would make sure that anyone around here who acts contemptuous of older people
would *never* get to experience old age firsthand!

"Everyone under the age of 45 is an idiot, and completely committed to the process of becoming an old geezer!"
- -Judic West, Baron of Children.

And for those who are offended by that observation, chill out.

I'll be 64 in less than two weeks.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2017 04:18PM by steve benson.

You'll have that red, white and blue Federal health care card in your wallet, and find yourself wondering, "When the *bleep* did I get THAT old??"

Unless the Orange One and his minions have managed to run Medicare over the cliff and into the sea entirely, which seems frighteningly possible sometimes.

If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself. I am 76, but people who only know me from online or on the phone are often very surprised. "Elderly" is a word I abhor. Exactly when does one become "elderly?" When I was a kid, I thought it was someone in their 90s or maybe mid-late 80s. I'll still go with that, although I was horrified to discover that to most physicians and hospitals, it means "over 60." Over 60? Please! I still work (part-time, because when the bank where I worked got sold, 45 of us lost our jobs, and it's hard to find full-time work when the person interviewing you is younger than your grandchild), and I work in a mental hospital, and I know plenty of younger people who could not do what I do. It's not taxing physically, but it requires being able to deal helpfully with people who are mentally ill or at least temporarily mentally unstable.

I do have COPD (my own fault from starting to smoke at age 15 and not stopping until I was 60) which ruined my lungs. So when I developed lung cancer, it was a tumor that would have been easily operable IF I had not ruined my lung function with the 40 some years of smoking. :( I had a round of radiaton, and have to have CT scans every 10 weeks, so who knows? But anyway--

I am also sick of hearing about how "old white women" are the ones who elected Mr. T., our faux president. Well, I guess I'm an 'old white woman' but I sure as hell didn't vote for him.

Anyway, I encourage my kids and grandkids to make some inter-generational friends. You never know who you are going to find out there who is in some way a soul mate, and if you automatically disregard anybody over your own age, or under, for that matter you can end up losing a lot of quality friendships. My last temp job before I took the job I have now gave me 2 friends who will be friends for life. They are both in their 20s. We clicked immediately. We talk, meet for lunch or a coffee or a drink, send crazy cards to each other, and tell each other everything--sex lives and all, then laugh until we pee. I also have a 6 year old friend from another area of my life, as well as friends from all decades.

So treat those of us in the "golden years" (an incredibly stupid name for this time of life) the same way you would treat your best friend, and not like some worthless old piece of porcelain that will break --unless, of course, what you do with your best friend is shove each other around until somebody falls over the coffee table. :)

And for the love of any gods and/or goddesses, remove the term "elderly" from your vocabulary. Don't use it as an automatic description of anyone (unless they are actually over, like 100). Thanks!

I am on old geezer and I sometimes refer to my generation as old geezers. I’ve never considered it to be a slur.

When it's tossed out as an excuse to hate someone, it should be deleted.

Exactly!!! You should never hide behind an 'excuse' to hate someone!

Cheryl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When it's tossed out as an excuse to hate someone,
> it should be deleted.


Or that person should be deleted. :) I worked at the bank with a 25 year old who had to talk to an older bank customer on the phone one day, got nasty, finally ended the call by throwing the entire phone against the wall and screaming, "I fucking HATE old people!" Boss (who thought 25's poo didn't smell) was not there. Nobody told her. But somehow word got round to the bank president, so when the young lady quit to go find herself in Florida, she soon found herself back in Lafayette and wanting to come back to the bank. The boss we had said she'd love to have her, but she was forced to rescind the offer when about 5 people from our department cornered said Bank President and told him flatly that "If Crystal comes back, I will leave. Just FYI, Randy, I won't work with her again." I was one of the 5. :)

The main problem as I see it is that the Q15 are in fact old geezers. A geezer is someone who is unreasonable, cranky, and out of touch, and almost always a term referring to a male. The shoe fits.

I think calling them a bunch of old geezers is perfectly appropriate. Hell of a lot easier to spell than patriarchal gerontocracy, which is the high-priced way to say the same thing.

"You kids get off my lawn or I'm calling the cops" is the quintessential old geezer statement.

Publicly lobbying the board admins to delete posts that annoy you sounds awfully, dare I say it, old geezerish.

I bet even some of the Q15 have joked about being old geezers. Bednar was probably born a geezer, but he had to earn "old" the hard way.

I turned 70 last week, so as an unofficial but clearly qualified geezer standing on the lawn, call the board cops on me. See if I care.

:) Ah, the advantages of age.

To me it is an honor to finally reach 'old geezerhood'. I don't mind if people try to use it to insult or degrade me. If/when it happens it would bring a smile to my face and I would most likely say something along the line of, "Thanks for the compliment, now get out of my way".

Anyway, it says more about the person trying to be offensive and insulting than it does about me. (Well maybe anyway. lol)

I figure I am a crazy old geezer now myself. I describe myself as one all the time. I don't find it offensive to joke about getting old unless maybe it could be a legal discrimination issue. It's a fact of life. Getting old ain't going to be pretty for many of us. Might as well make light of it.

Grieves me most of all the legacy of debt and remorse we leave for our children.

Hope I don't meet up with too many in the CK.

They assume probably with tongue in cheek that it's the same to humorously laugh about being old and to harshly judge someone by saying, "You/he/they are all crazy old geezers which explains your bad behavior. Big difference.

Many protected groups and minorities humorously use terms they don't want strangers to fling at them with vengefully. They don't want their supposed faults attributed to their race or gender and I don't blame them. In the workplace it's illegal to discriminate based on gender, race, age, and other attributes. I think we need to be mindful of other posters sensibilities.

I'm celebrating 51 happy years and looking forward to having grandsons here to open presents and enjoy the Christmas festivities.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!