Paul Fitzpatrick: October 2023

“I hope I die before I get old” wrote a 20-year-old Pete Townshend in 1965, I wonder how he reflects on that sentiment today as a 78-year-old grandfather.

I saw a comment on this blogs Facebook page recently where someone who’s the same age as me (65 years young!) was referring to the elderly and it got me thinking that at 65 we can’t be that far away from being classed as elderly ourselves.

So, what is today’s definition of elderly?

Well, in the eyes of the World Health Organisation (WHO) you are categorised as elderly when you hit 65.

When I was young anyone who was 40+ was old in my eyes, accordingly, anyone classified as a pensioner was ancient. Bizarrely at 65 and on the cusp of receiving a state pension, I don’t even consider myself to be old, never mind elderly.
Delusional I know, but if Pete Townshend can still play windmill-guitar at 78 then I’m a young pup.

Is our generation different because it’s been blessed with better lifestyle-choices and medical care or did our parents and grandparents feel the same as we do now and we just didn’t notice?

I do know that everything seems to happen later in life for young people these days.

You talk to young people about celebrating their 21^st now and they look at you as if you’re mental

Thirty seems to be the coming-of-age number to celebrate these days.

Thirty?
Back in the day a lot of us were shopping for sensible cars and taking our kids to the swing park by then.

Different times of course, things tended to follow a demonstrated timeline triggered the moment we left school, back then.

First off, I tip my hat to anyone who went on to further education in the 70s, you had to be clever, however, just about everyone I knew, including myself, left school at 16.

Some school leavers were as dumb as fence posts, had no interest in education and couldn’t wait to escape, others were bright enough, but wanted to start earning or knew that further education wasn’t for them.

When I left school in the mid 70s about 10% of people went on to further education, by 2021 that figure had grown to 38%.

Between the ages of 16-22 most of my peers’ served apprenticeships, working and living at home, before meeting ‘the one’ and taking on the responsibilities of adulthood…. it was a well-trodden path.

Maybe it would have been different for our generation if we’d had smartphones and dating apps – the profiles on a 1974 dating app don’t bare thinking about, consider the grammar, and the profile pics!
Plus, nobody’s interests back then were… ‘going for long walks in the countryside, visiting gastropubs and reading books by an open fire’.

When I got married in 1982, we’d saved up to buy a wee house, had a small family wedding and basically moved into our new house on our wedding night.

One day we were living at home with our parents getting our meals cooked for us enjoying a cosseted lifestyle, the next?
Well, you get there eventually but it was still a culture shock for both of us, particularly my poor wife who had this novice to contend with.

Times have changed, the growing number that go to university normally do so in a different city and experience independence for a few years until they graduate, then just when you think you’ve got shot of them, they move back in with you for 5 years, drink your wine, eat your cheese (yep, after 3 years of pot noodles they’re connoisseurs now) and commandeer the telly controls!

I look at our generation now and health-willing we’re a pretty active bunch who are doing a lot of the same things we did when we were younger and in some cases even more.
I see plenty of people going to gigs/festivals (or even playing live music themselves), plenty going on regular city breaks and holidays, there’s lots of gym goers, tennis players, golfers and even a couple that still play football, not to mention all the long walks in the countryside visiting gastropubs!

I don’t remember my grandparents or parents doing many of those things at 65.

Was that due to physical constraints, societal attitudes, finances or have times just moved on and we’re a generation of Peter Pans who don’t want to grow up?

I suspect that Townsend didn’t intend his lyrics to be taken literally and was no doubt being figurative, then again ageing is always better than the alternative.

Maybe a better song about the passing of time is Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years” where he suggests that there’s nothing wrong with a bit of nostalgia and that looking back on a life well lived is a good remedy to solitude and bitterness.

Take it away Paul….