Sen-Gen? Gen S? Something Else?

Your vote is needed!

Photo by Manny Becerra on Unsplash

There's a change in the wind, and a split in the road
You can do what's right or you can do what you are told
And the prize of the victory will belong to the bold
For these are the days of decision
Yes, these are the days of decision-Days of Decision, Phil Ochs

This is my twentieth Substack post. Happy Anniversary to me!

One of my objectives for Leaving Middle Age is to create a term to describe the 66-80 year-old age group. The definition of middle age is usually 45-65 years of age. Ages 66 to death is called old. I believe there is a difference between the "younger" old people and the "older" group. But what do we call it?

I have asked this question in several articles, and you have responded. Thank you. Some suggestions are serious, some humorous, and many of you have said you would like to see some of the options to help get your creative juices flowing. So, I have created a poll at the end of this story. Please vote for your favorite. I will share the results. We may decide we have a winner, or we may have strong contenders to help us continue the search. We shall see.

My friend Bonnie suggested either "Sen-Gen" or “Gen S.” I shared this with another friend who added a Y and O to Gen S. “Gen SY” stands for senior young, and “Gen SO” stands for senior old. Another subscriber thought “Classic” was the perfect description. They wrote, "I am so tired of old equating to bad or over the hill. Classics, like classic cars, represent something valued and cool. That's what we are!" I like it. The Classic Generation?

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I received some responses via social media where the poster disagreed with my premise that there should be a name for this group. One person wrote:

"My observation is that there are some 66 year old folks who are older than I am at 82. Putting tags on numbers is unproductive and pejorative, in my estimation. And for those of you who are in the younger group of "old, "those of us in the older tier of "old "Are still approximately 25 years old in our heads. I think physical health has a lot to do with "old. "At age 79, I was fortunate to have three joint replacements. Prior to that I was definitely.OLD. Main reason that I was in pain and unable to move easily. Since those three surgeries, my biological age has gone up, but my emotional and mental age has gone significantly down.

Not to mention that younger people are going to think that everyone older than they are "old, "anyway. They won't understand until they are perhaps lucky enough to reach old age."

Another wrote:

"Humans gonna classify and categorize into boxes, but it doesn't seem productive to spend time trying to figure out what box we "belong" in."

My response to this point of view is that we have designations for everyone else: infants, toddlers, preteens, teens, young adults, adults, and middle age. Then we stop and clump everyone in the "old” bucket. That could be 30-plus years of being called the same thing. I keep trying to decide if the word "old" is the problem. It seems always to have a negative meaning. Why can't old be a positive, good thing?

Some of the responses were hilarious. Examples include this one:

"I am calling myself a baby old person--but that is a bit clunky."

Or this one:

"Pat and I joke that we are so busy at 70 and 72 we are thus in our "aerobic retirement years"… dunno if that makes us "aerobees", or maybe "retirebocs"… the first sounds funnier."

There are so many opinions and so many suggestions. One reader thought we should take the opposite view. He said, "Rather, call that last group, The Age of Decline. A colleague of mine, a biology professor, of course, said upon turning 80, "This is the decade you die." Period." True, but a tiny bit harsh. 🤭

Another person thought we shouldn't lump the different decades together. She said:

“My friends and family members in their 60s are very different in appearance and cognitive ability than those in their 70s. I think we should refer to people as sixty-somethings, seventy-somethings, eighty-somethings, you get the idea".

What do you think?

As you review the suggestions in the polls, remember that your vote matters. If you don't see your suggestion listed, please let me know, and I'll add it. I'm not sure if we'll find the definitive option today, but I'm excited to see which ideas resonate with you. And remember, this is just the beginning. Your vote and your ideas are crucial, so please keep them coming! (FYI, Substack only allows five questions in a poll. So, I needed to create three polls to list all the ideas.) You can vote once per poll. Feel free to explain your opinion or offer additional suggestions in the comments section. Thank you.

Have a good week!

Diane

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