The Golden Years: I’d Like to File a Complaint

This morning I asked Chatty (my name for ChatGPT) this question.

Me: “Golden Years. Who came up with the idea of calling “seniors” as being in their “Golden Years.” Is it too late to prosecute?”

Chatty’s answer was quite fun; he knows my sense of humor and responds in kind.

ChatGPT (alias Chatty): “The phrase “golden years” for old age seems to have become popular in the mid-20th century, especially in advertising and retirement marketing. There does not appear to be one single villain we can drag before a tribunal.”

It was basically meant to sell the idea that retirement was a reward period: leisure, travel, freedom, sunshine, golf, no alarm clock. Very postwar-America optimism.

And yes, I think the statute of limitations has probably expired.

Though I would support a symbolic hearing on charges of false advertising.

Because “golden years” can sound lovely until the reality includes medication schedules, appointments, caregiving, mobility problems, paperwork, and trying to remember why you walked into the kitchen.

A more accurate term might be:

“The Years in Which You Finally Know What Matters, but Everything Takes Longer.”

Really, quite good, don’t you think?

Maybe “Golden” Was Overselling It

What actually matters? Hmmm. Truthfully, I am still a bit stuck on what actually matters. Some days it varies quite a bit.

My husband has Parkinson’s – there is very little golden about it. At our last VA medical visit (we are both veterans – Go Navy!) I picked up a cute bookmark advertising a book that I just might get, OH CRAP! IT’S PARKINSON’S.

So far, my husband and I still maintain a good sense of humor and practicality. I don’t want to downplay advertising’s push to soft-coat a rosy spin on aging, but we tend to call it the “Crappy Years.” I came up with the term, but he agrees with me.

So far, the advertising moguls have not adopted it. But with “truth in advertising” they should seriously think about it.

My husband and I agree on a lot of things. We laugh a lot and get through these “golden days of endless sunshine” with as much “aging gracefully” as we can. Neither of us golf by the way.

It’s not that there are not a lot of “golden moments” in our lives today, but I buy into the program that every stage of life has its golden times as well as not so golden times.

We don’t check out the worries and cares of life at any age.

We don’t stop wishing we looked better, handled things better, or, you know, remembered things better.

The magic is living each stage of our life the best we can.

I remember having stomach aches from worry at eight years old because I didn’t want to go to school or that awful things might happen, and those same bits of worry pop up when I try to figure out how to get through something I don’t particularly want to get through or that in the future “awful things might happen.”

Life just is. The future doesn’t hold any promises or rose gardens without thorns.

It comes packaged with good things and bad things. It doesn’t get easier or better or golden when we become teenagers, 21, or 71.

Some Pretty Golden Things at 70 and Beyond

Here, though, are some things I appreciate at this stage in my life.

• Handicap parking. That is really, really nice. If you were to observe my parking ability you would agree I should have had this much earlier.
• Social Security, Medicare and VA benefits. I don’t know how we would manage without them.
• AARP. No kidding. They really do a lot for us golden folks.
• Getting a chair at a picnic while younger folks scramble onto wooden benches.
• Children and grandkids.
• Hearing aids. Oh, my gosh, I would feel lost without them. What? Can you repeat that?
• Glasses? Well, I have been wearing them since I was 13, but I still appreciate them.
• Smartphone. I may be 70, but I am as addicted to mine as any 14-year-old. Email, weather, news, social media, and even books. Oh, and of course, phone calls.
• Computer. I do so much on my computer. From ordering groceries (okay, I haven’t tried that yet, but it’s possible) to producing my weekly radio show from home, building web pages (been doing that since 2003 you know back when writing everything in code was a thing?) and writing this article.
• Chair lift! We just got this for my husband. Super expensive, but it makes his Parkinson’s mobility so much better.

Once I get started, the list could go on forever. Every day is not golden, but there are certainly golden moments in every one of them.

Which, of course, is true at any age.

So, maybe the years themselves aren’t golden at all. Maybe it’s the moments.

Over to You:

What are some of your golden and not so “golden” moments?