Grandpa

There are dangers in retirement.

One of the sneakiest has to do with ending up in a geezer ghetto, either literally or figuratively.

A literal example would be like the place we visited in Arizona for a month last winter. It is a lovely community set in an area with year-round sunshine. Prices are reasonable, and there are tons of activities like lapidary (rock work), quilting, tennis, pickleball, karaoke, hot tubs to soak in, and a pool. As newly retired, we were the babies of the place, just barely squeaking in past the mandatory minimum age.

A non-literal situation is one where an older person lives in a regular community, and partakes of activities full of like-aged people, and who also has friends who are of similar age.

There is an energy, and modernity in younger people. It is important to remain a part of that world. Younger can mean many things, from babies, to kids, to teens, to young adults, to parents with young kids, and on up to those nearing-retirement.

Some maintain contact through family. A person with kids or grand kids has a built-in youth contact system, assuming they get to see them fairly often.

I am a good example of an old guy at risk.

I retired a couple of years ago, from a job as a high-school teacher. Very large numbers of hours were spent in the company of many amazing kids. Every day I got to see how stupid all the worry about the coming generation is, and had the privilege of seeing things through the kids' eyes.

That is no longer true for me.

There are no young people on our street. I have family members who are younger, but who live far away. We have friends our age who live far off, too. The only people I regularly see socially are my wife's friends, and they are all at least our age.

So how do I get my fix of differently-aged people that I say is so important.

Simple; I rassle with them.

I train in Jiu-Jitsu, and at 59, am the oldest student attending our school, by quite at bit. I have no contact with the children's groups, and so only know the people in our adult programs.

Adult is a relative term. Perhaps they should be called an “adult-sized” programs. There are several in the beginners group who are in their early teens. Most are twenty-ish, and sometimes we get somebody actually in their thirties. Rarely older.

Our advanced class has students ranging from age 16 up to their early 50s, and me. The average age of everybody excluding me is mid-20s.

These are the young people I that I regularly hang around with.

It's very cool, as they pretty much have to treat me as one of them. They have no choice, or I'll choke them out.

We are a collection of peers, who just happen to be of widely-varied ages.

If I am away, and want to find out what we've covered, I turn to Elizabeth. She has the best detail memory, and just happens to be 20 years old. If I want to work with somebody really strong, I turn to Rob who is 50, not that it matters. Koko, who is home for the summer from university and a third my age, has been working hard on completing a technical Jiu-Jitsu exam, and I've been helping her out as I know the material, and have free time.

The only two that outrank me are in their twenties, and one of those is the only student who is also certified as an instructor (as is, of course, our instructor). Their relative youth is irrelevant.

Just a bunch of people training together.

I get to be the oldest.