Mom always told me to thank the host before leaving, and since all of you allowed me into your homes either in print or online, this is an early good-bye.
Next week will mark my final two columns as I head off into what is officially called “retirement.”
Of course, for some, retirement is a dirty word. A hard-working nurse well into her 70s recently warned me I’ll die of boredom.
Don’t think so.
Still, the sheer number of aging Americans is worrisome.
Right now, the number of people turning 65 is climbing and over the next four years is expected to skyrocket. According to the Pew Research Center, a staggering 10,000 people, on average, will turn 65 every day for at least the next decade.
The California Department on Aging estimates that at this moment there is the highest percentage of people 60 and older in California than ever before. There also is the highest number.
Of people 60 and above, Los Angeles County estimates it has 1.3 million, Orange County about 675,000, Riverside County nearly a half-million and San Bernardino County 373,000.
If you take a look at the number of men and women 75 and older, the statistics are even more concerning since this age group faces more health challenges and requires more services.
Los Angeles has 386,429 people 75 years old and above, Orange County 211,390, Riverside County 158,624 and San Bernardino 100,649.
The question is, will California and the nation be prepared? But the bigger question is, will you be prepared?
Barring debilitating illness, each one of us is responsible for captaining our own ship.
Motion is lotion
In our teens and 20s, we are invincible — or at least we think we are.
I was 17 years old when I made a pilgrimage of sorts to Jim Morrison’s grave in Paris. That was one year after the 27-year-old singer’s death and to a teenager in the 1970s, it seemed that Morrison already had lived a legendary life in full.
“I wanna have my kicks,” he once yelled to a crowd, “before the whole (expletive) goes up in flames.”
If Morrison had lived, he’d be 75 years old today. But we can agree that unless the rock star made some drastic changes, he would have been lucky to make 50.
How we live life matters.
Consider that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of adults with diabetes has tripled in the last two decades.
Eat right, exercise and, hopefully, you’ll be fine.
The other day I met a 77-year-old mountain biker and he wasn’t riding an e-bike. Instead, he was cranking up a steep hill near Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park on nothing but his own power.
The septuagenarian shared that the trick was to ride at least two days a week. It reminded me of something a very smart woman by the name of Sioix Dahlem once told me, “Motion is lotion.”
As Dahlem indicated, there are a slew of things you can do to stretch both your life and, perhaps more importantly, your quality of life.
Things like pickleball.
OK, it has a funny name. But pity the poor pickles. They’re stuck with the name for life.
Pickleball is similar to a slow version of tennis, and is far more kind on aging joints.
Swimming, bowling, walking also are on the list for keeping healthy.
My grandmother, Viola Suess Whiting, was a huge fan of lawn bowling when she lived at what was then Leisure World and is now Laguna Woods.
Grandma also had a morning routine of lifting light weights, stretching and doing sit-ups. That was before her regular lunch of fruit, vegetables, yogurt and wheat germ.
Grandma lived to be 88 and would have gone on much longer if it weren’t for crushing rheumatoid arthritis.
Shuffleboard is another low-impact sport recommended for seniors.
But many people old enough to qualify for AARP membership can push harder.
No limits
My mother began mountain biking, hiking, canyoneering, swimming and Jet Skiing at age 60, and continued most of those sports well into her mid-80s.
Some keep chugging even as they approach 100.
This past summer during the 30th anniversary of the National Senior Games — an event most call the “senior Olympics” — there were 20 separate sports in New Mexico ranging from archery to basketball to track and field.
How many medals did California residents win? An astounding 653.
Yes, there was pickleball and shuffleboard, too. But more than anything, the Senior Games remind us there are no limits.
Two former classmates from the San Francisco Bay Area, Bob Shannon and Jeff Johanson, ran into one another and talked for the first time in decades. Shannon, now 66, managed to beat his high school record in backstroke and Johanson, now 65, won a silver medal in breaststroke.
Yet they have nothing on Ernest Schillinger of Williamsburg, Va. He won his age division in the sprint triathlon at age 88.
I’ll admit, Schillinger also happened to be the only entry in his age group. But that just tells us to never give up.
Ethel Trimmer of New Mexico embodies that spirit. At the Senior Games, Tripper crushed the 100-freestyle in four minutes, 8 seconds. She was 98.
I don’t know if I’ll regrow my water wings. But I do know I’m not quite ready for shuffleboard.
If you venture into the outdoors, there’s a good chance you’ll see me flying down rocky and rutted trails on my mountain bike and doing a few other things that I like to call “stupid stuff.”
I may not hit my late-70s as gracefully as the 77-year-old mountain biker, also named David.
But I sure as heck will try.
