Interesting Thing # 2

Sprightly Old People

There's a lady in my kickboxing class who terrifies me. She looks about 65 but is somehow as fit as me, if not fitter, and apart from an inability to kick to the full height, completes the full kickboxing workout with barely a bead of sweat in sight. I on the other hand, a woman in my prime, am red-faced and gasping at the back of the class, drenched in sweat, looking like I've been pulled out of a lake by my legs, seconds before drowning.

Old Americans always seem younger than the rest of us somehow.

This was something that we always noticed when our American relatives would come to visit us in "ze old country" and would traipse about in the pouring rain, wearing 'slacks' and driving for miles without a second thought. The 'slacks' were particularly amazing as women in my part of the world back then were only just starting to wear trousers so they were still considered to be a bit racy. But my Great-Aunt Annie from New York wore them and so did the female contingent of our Chicago clan, despite their advanced years. 

These relatives were the same age-group as my parents are now, in their late 60s or 70s, but seemed much younger somehow. I don't know if it's the fine climate or the Medicare that keeps them going but in general, old age doesn't seem to be as debilitating around here. Maybe the real truth is that we only see the energetic, sprightly elders out and about while all the poorer, decrepit ones who spent their lives slaving in manual jobs are already dead or in homes. Either way, it's encouraging to see and, if nothing else, it certainly motivates me in my kickboxing classes...