The Seniors Thread :-)

[darksideofthemoon]

"This is for the Senior members of CS, those born before 1947. Baby Boomers and Generations X & Y are welcome providing you are over 18 🙂

But this is definitely for people who are facing the last long haul.  We have survived babyhood, childhood, being teens and twenties... We have learned to read and write, to drive, have probably been married and the women have survived child birth.

The challenges are constant and the near misses of death are also there.  If we have become a senior we have learned to survive so much, and along the way we have, of course, gathered a great deal of knowledge about life.

The  belief that age diminishes us is not true, it changes us and not all of it is bad.  Yes there can be various forms of dementia for some, but that is also a disease that can happen in younger people.  Alzheimer's can also occur - it is another form of dementia and generally occurs in people over 65, although that can occur much earlier too and not everyone is going to get it.

Most of us keep our mental alertness up to the moment of death, even if we lose our hearing and our eyesight, but of course this can happen at any age too.

What changes is our physical strength, which diminishes but our mental strength and patience grows, it has to of course, to deal with this aging thing.

Arthritis, heart trouble, strokes - all these things associated with age can happen at any time in your life - arthritis can happen when you are a child but they don't like giving out new hips and knees until you are in your 50s and 60s or later.  We can talk about that too.

Cancer can happen any time and that is also something we can discuss here if you like.

The point of this thread is to give the Seniors a chance to talk about how they are coping with age, the challenges it presents and the fears that can come with it... loss of hearing or sight, aging spouses, living alone, retirement villages, even death...

So I will ask that the Juniors treat us in kindly fashion and remember, all this is going to happen to you too - providing you avoid death before you get here 🙂

So, onward and upward.  Let's go...."

[darksideofthemoon]

Err... that should read 'the crowds were enormous'

Grandmoon you were in Spencer street station when your Dad arrived home.. they are strong memories aren't they.

[rosieglen]

My father was in the first world war - he was quite elderly when I was born -

I dont remember a lot about the war years but I remember we took eggs to school to be sent to England as they were short of food just after the war.

[kengillard]

My father didn't go to the war....he was quite ill and as he got worse my mum used to drag my sister (5) and me (3) up to milk the cows at 4.a.m.   I remember falling on the rocky road on the way to the milking bails and gouging a hole in my shin, which turned into osteomyolitis (sp) then my dad died and mum got a share farmer to do the milking and we moved to 'town'...my fathers brother went to war in the middle east with the Light Horse etc. and came home when I was about 6 or 7..I remember this huge (to me) man in khaki that I ran away from and climbed onto the fernery top so he couldn't 'get' me..lol and having to put black paper over the windows, so the 'japs' planes wouldn't see our lights at night...could never understand that then, but do now. Also the end of the war with everyone in the back of utes driving up and down the streets, tooting their horns and shouting etc.  All very confusing for a 7 year old.

[mum*of*goldens]

My daughter is a 62 baby Dilly.  Hope all goes well today:-x

Well at nearly 70 a whole new phase of my life is starting.

After a long time on the market we have a sale for our home and are moving interstate to be closer to our grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Does anyone know how expensive it is to have the removalists pack for you?  I have always done it myself but its a huge job - I suspect it also costs and arm and a leg.

Pardon me for dropping by, I was born in 58 so not yet part of this group, but wanted to reply to Rosie.

When we moved from Hervey Bay it cost about an extra $400 I think it was, to have the removalists pack everything up for us. That was for the 2 of us, plus my 2 kids, a heap of books/dvds etc.

It was so worth it as Paul was at that time living and working in Brissy and I was in Hervey Bay and not well at the time. [this was just before my hospitalisation in January this year].

So I would definitely get some quotes for them packing for you, it saves so much stress, backache and energy.

And congrats to you on selling the unit Rosie!!

......waves goodbye as she exits thread.

[bluepanda555]

Well good morning all ....   my goodness some of you are early birds, 

I know they say when you're older you don't need much sleep, but I'm still waiting for that, I'm still a late riser (though it's just past  noon and indeed I did get up a lot earlier lol). 

What a lot of memories you all bring back, though particularly I'm thinking right now of when I  was very young  how you were not expected to question authority at all ....and authority was just about anyone 'grown up'.  I know some kids were rebels then but I wasn't,  I was a 'good little girl'  and was brought up to always behave like a lady.  (Loud laughter).   I wore big bows in my hair and frilly skirts. 

As I got older I always had to wear gloves.  The seams in my stockings had to be straight.  And the hairstyles ... omg, flat like pancakes with waves (anyone remember them?)  set with Curlypet and metal butterflies.  The big hair breakthrough was the beehive, and teasing our hair until it almost dropped out. 

Love this thread.  😛

[purple_haize]

[quote mid="504926588"]

Well good morning all ....   my goodness some of you are early birds,

I know they say when you're older you don't need much sleep, but I'm still waiting for that, I'm still a late riser (though it's just past  noon and indeed I did get up a lot earlier lol).

What a lot of memories you all bring back, though particularly I'm thinking right now of when I  was very young  how you were not expected to question authority at all ....and authority was just about anyone 'grown up'.  I know some kids were rebels then but I wasn't,  I was a 'good little girl'  and was brought up to always behave like a lady.  (Loud laughter).   I wore big bows in my hair and frilly skirts.

As I got older I always had to wear gloves.  The seams in my stockings had to be straight.  And the hairstyles ... omg, flat like pancakes with waves (anyone remember them?)  set with Curlypet and metal butterflies.  The big hair breakthrough was the beehive, and teasing our hair until it almost dropped out.

Love this thread.  😛

[/quote

Yes, I remember all that, and we couldnt back chat to our parents or those people older than us.

regards the teasing of hair..........it is a wonder that I had any hair left, then after all the teasing all held in place by loads of hairspray, so hair was stiff as a board.

My grandmother use to make all my clothes, she would cut the patterns out of newspaper, I use to hate it when she would make me stand for ages fitting the newspaper to me........seems like a long, long time ago.

[rosieglen]

Thank you so much for that!!!  I will check it out - sounds like it will be so worth it!!

Is it a year since you were in hospital????  My goodness that time has flown!  :-x

[jean2579]

Speaking of beehive hairdos, does anyone remember stuffing scarves inside your hair to make it taller, or putting in the metal frames and then spraying laquer on it. That stuff could have been used to lay roads it was so rigid, and only washing your hair once a month because it was just too hard to do it any more often.  My OH and I worked for the Roads Dept in Sydney in the 60's and I was called before the Personnel Officer because we were seen touching feet under the table in the staff canteen.  I could never work out why I got called in and he didn't.

[4ewesonly]

Jan 1956 baby and still as gorgeous but, I have more hair now :^O

will be the exact age same as year in 5days time whoopee

however  I still think im 25 going on 13. well I don't think I'm a 13 year old but some of my friends say I'm like Mr' Bean

I expect now I am a fully fledged member of this group I will  know how I should behave at my age lol . and adjust myself accordingley ...or not...

cheers

😉

[freshwater-2]

Just a question why 1947?

This was referred to as  the baby boomer period because our soldiers had just returned from WW11 (60,000 out of a total Australian population of 7 million didn't make it) and the lucky ones were starting families.

They returned to unbelievable housing shortages and food rationing, but started rebuilding Australia, along with the migrants.