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Great Reads for the Book Lovers on Your Holiday List December 20, 2014 by Pepper Evans - I love to give books as gifts. I strive to match the book to the recipient the way some givers try to find the right scarf or tie—I want to make eyes sparkle. If you are shopping for a book…
Spring Swingers December 1, 2014 by Flora Davis - I lived in Montreal for half a dozen years in the 1950s, and I recall winters when the snow seemed endless. There was so much of it that the city didn’t just plow, it trucked the stuff away and dumped…
Do I Smell Old? October 24, 2014 by Flora Davis - When I was a teenager, I worried sometimes about whether I had bad breath or BO (body odor). Advertising campaigns regularly demonized these and other normal, human smells, and that sold a lot of toothpaste, mouthwash and deodorant. My concerns…
How Old Is Too Old? October 23, 2014 by Flora Davis - I am a fan of short, online videos—the kind you see on YouTube. I often follow the links that come flooding in with my emails. I’m willing to give them a try, trusting the judgment of people in my chain…
How Problematic Is This Atlantic Cover Story? Let Me Count the Ways October 20, 2014 by Ashton Applewhite - The cover of the October 2014 Atlantic magazine features a white-bearded skateboarder careening crazily above the title of an article that encapsulates American ambivalence about longevity, Ezekiel Emanuel’s “Why I Hope to Die at 75.” I wrote a letter to the…
Time to Rethink Ink October 14, 2014 by Pepper Evans - Tattoos: love them or hate them? If you are like me, you shudder at the thought. The mere word can conjure movie images of bikers, sailors, trollops—not to mention the creepy, all-night tattoo parlors—and brings to mind a long-held belief…
The Love of Her Life September 30, 2014 by Margaret Morganroth Gullette - 1 I guard my dear mother’s privacy as if she were still alive, but I have decided to rescue this particular part of her story from her secret archives because there are so few narratives about romance in late life.…
The Zen of Tony, Spanning Generations August 25, 2014 by Pepper Evans - I heard a voice from my past when I stumbled upon an interview on National Public Radio with the legendary singer Tony Bennett. It triggered many happy memories. I would know that voice anywhere—singing or telling a story—and it always…
Imagining My Father’s Story August 11, 2014 by Pepper Evans - I recently read two nonfiction books about soldiers from World War II. One was the memoir Breaking the Code: A Father's Secret, a Daughter's Journey, and the Question That Changed Everything by Karen Fisher-Alaniz (2011).
Emergency Rooms Get a Face Lift July 29, 2014 by Pepper Evans - According to a story on National Public Radio, people 65 and older are more likely to go to the ER than any other age group except babies. It may be time for hospitals to consider changing to accommodate the people…
Guess Who’s Confronting Ageism Now? July 23, 2014 by Ashton Applewhite - Ageism in Silicon Valley has been all over the news lately. “The Brutal Ageism of Tech,” a March 2014 feature story in the New Republic, noted that some male techies, still in their 20s, are contemplating Botox and hair transplants, while middle-aged engineers, a swelling cohort of “highly trained, objectively talented, surpassingly ambitious workers,” are being sidelined “for reasons no one can rationally explain.”
A Shortage of Heroes July 18, 2014 by Flora Davis - I think my doctor is a hero and I once told him so. He’s a geriatrician—a specialist in treating older people—and a rare find. From what I read, I can guess he earns less than most specialists and has less…
The Community of Me June 22, 2014 by Flora Davis - When I was a child, my father bragged that my mom kept our kitchen so clean, we could eat off the floor. Mother often warned me about germs, something she worried about a lot because, back then, there were no…
In the Air with a Chair June 13, 2014 by Pepper Evans - A friend received one of those worst-nightmare phone calls. Her husband had had a skiing accident out West and was about to undergo emergency surgery on a very smashed-up knee. Another friend took her mother, who had trouble walking, to…
Playing the Old-Person Card June 3, 2014 by Flora Davis - I was making breakfast when I heard the man from the phone company knock on my neighbor’s door. (I live in an apartment building in a huge retirement community.) I thought nothing of it—the neighbor had just moved in. But…
Fifty Years of Shopping with My Mother May 19, 2014 by Margaret Morganroth Gullette - Not just in childhood, but deep into my middle years, my mother and I shopped together. I got most of my clothes on those expeditions, and she paid for a great many of them.
Salad, for Breakfast? April 28, 2014 by Pepper Evans - What are you eating for breakfast these days? Green tea and a protein bar? McSomething? Coffee and a doughnut? Seeing Michelle Obama with the new USDA food plate (replacing the old pyramid) has me rethinking how my own food habits stack up. 
The Doomed Experiment in Intergenerational Living April 23, 2014 by Pepper Evans - I recently picked up Katie Hafner's Mother Daughter Me: A Memoir (2013). All it took was a glance at the book jacket for me to know that the author was telling part of my story along with her own.
Multitasking after 40 April 10, 2014 by Flora Davis - I’ve always prided myself on my ability to multitask—I hate to do just one thing if I can manage two at the same time. I never go anywhere without a book just in case I get a chance to read.…
Fear of Falling April 8, 2014 by Pepper Evans - My sister-in-law took a tumble down a few steps the other day, ending up in the ER with a badly sprained ankle. Claire is my age, mid-50s, and she is in good physical health. She even does Italian folk dancing…
Senior Centers Are Evolving - The first time Sue and Mike Miller visited their community’s senior center in Portage, MI, several years ago, they found a few people playing pool or bridge—and decided it wasn’t for them. But the couple tried again in 2022, when…
The Upside and Downside of Being Owned by a Cat - I love my cat, but until now, I hadn’t thought of her as a way to stay healthy. In fact, when I first brought Velvet—a small, feisty black kitty—home, I thought of her as a dog substitute. My beloved dog…