There are a plethora of positives on growing old (I will be 54 in November), but there is one real absolutes in doing it right, IMHO:

Don't stop playing. Find the right group(s) to stay engaged in as many activities as you can. Games are good for the soul, competition is essential to staying mentally and physically active.

Compete with your Buds, challenge a river, learn to sail (or any task, cards for goodness sake) or find a solo endeavor and compete with yourself.

^this^

You will never go senile if you do. I know a 100 year old guy who goes dancing every weekend with his 95 year old wife. Sharp as a tack and pretty good photographer.

My wife just turned 50 and was with some friends last week when my wife said, "My God, I'm getting old!" as if it were a bad thing. Everyone does it. Then she remembered that one of the friends lost her husband to cancer when he was 45.

If nothing else, getting old is something to celebrate because... you're getting old.

Quick sea story:

My first sea tour was at NAS North Island, right next to Coronado, Ca.

One day every month I had to stand duty as the Squadron Duty Officer, essentially a spear-catching job should anything go wrong with an aircraft, officer or enlisted personnel getting into trouble or deployed units having "issues".

You had to stay on base and bunk at the NAS North Island BOQ. Nice room.

As a really junior LTjg, I got stuck with the duty on a Friday. After everything at the squadron was buttoned up, I decided to eat at the Officers Club and then head to the Q.

As luck would have it, I discovered Old Folks Dance Night. Once a month the Club brought in a live band to play all the oldies.

The place was jammed with retirees, all dancing and laughing and generally grab-a$$ing around like young LT's.

What a great sight.

I made sure I tracked the OFDN schedule and would ask for the duty on those nights...invite a young lady would liked to dance in for dinner and woo the Vixen with my cheek to cheek.

Fish in a barrel.

Great thing was the retirees all had the twinkle Sup wrote about.

100% better than a dirt nap

a couple of years ago i was on my way to work and was a little early so i decided to stop at the local coffee shop and order some breakfast; afterward when i got the bill i notice it was a very cheap breakfast... a sale? NOT, when i got to the counter to pay the kid at the cash register told me, "Sir, I gave you the Senior discount"..... WTF? i just laughed... "ok, thanks."

Paul,

Good story. My wedding reception was held at the BOQ at Tempelhof Air Base in Berlin, the last official event before they closed the base and handed it back over to the Germans.

Always had a great time at the "O" club and if you had a bit too much to drink you could always bunk in at the BOQ and be safe and legal. Lots of memories and all of them good there! :)

Joe A

This just my personal feeling, but what sours a lot of people, especially women, as they age is they stop playing/exercising (a HUGE problem with the sistas; if one more big momma tells me how she used to run track in HS while seeing me return from a 10-mile run). When moving stops being fun, it's on it's way to being a chore, and that road leads to a pretty crappy old age. This is how I'd prefer to do it:

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/x29a5-u0cu8&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&fea ture=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/x29a5-u0cu8&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&fea ture=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

I enjoy being able to read the same books over and over and not even know it.

I never worried about aging. But since damaging my spinal cord I am getting older. As was said though....getting older is better than not!

I just turned 60 this June. I feel the same as 50 or 40, just a little slower getting up in the morning. I've got a job I like, work when I want, and am happy. Yep, I still have bills to pay, but I don't worry about them. My wife looks 40, keeps in shape, and so on a scale of 10, I'm a 8. You're only as old as you feel.

Something that I have noticed as I've gotten older. I get just as mad as ever, but my anger is very focused - sort of a smart missile instead of a truck bomb. I miss everything but my target and believe me, when I'm pissed, I make my target pay...

The other side of that is I've become much more forgiving. I almost never hold a grudge. Life is too precious and too short for me to waste time with that.

angela