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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsToday, Oct. 13, I turn 70. (A self-indulgent retrospective)
And migod, is it weird! For one thing, I've been on DU since 2001 when I was a mere child in my late 50's.
I don't know how well I'm going to be able to handle this (gasp!) growing old business.
It's been an interesting ride, to say the least.
I was born late in the reign of King Franklin & Queen Eleanor, and was of a generation that benefited mightily from the (semi-)enlightened politics of that era. I went through school in an era when education was highly valued, as were teachers (especially when I hit high school just after Sputnik went up and Cold War fears gripped the nation). There was this thing called the National Defense Education Act whereby Congress poured money into the public schools and trusted the schools to use it properly. As far as I could tell, they did. There was no "goals & objectives" nonsense, no "race to the top," but quite a few of my classmates and I went on from our quite rural school system to earn higher degrees and professional careers.
I went through 4 years of college & lost my parents in my senior year (mother at the beginning, father at the end). I was then drafted and did time as a grunt in Vietnam. The war radicalized me, and I came home to return to school and join the antiwar movement. Campaigned for McGovern, and have always been politically involved, including as a minor functionary in the county Democratic Party..
I got a PhD in psych, taught and did research in a series of non-tenure-track and often part-time academic positions until I decided to get off the treadmill, which I did by getting a clinical postdoc position for 2 years & then passing the tests for my shrink license.
Since then I've worked in a psych hospital, in private outpatient clinics, as a field psychologist for Corrections, and, for the last 7 or 8 years, as a forensic psychologist in private practice. I had a coronary bypass in 1992 and was hospitalized for Congestive Heart Failure last February. Since then, I've been slowing down in my practice and re-focusing my attention on figuring out what it is I actually want to do with my remaining time. I'll check in again when I've figured out what those things are.
Yeah, it's been quite a ride.
And thanks for indulging me.
Phentex
(16,334 posts)You've had an interesting life...so far!
Best wishes!
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)Interesting times! Let me know when you find out what you want to be when you grow up--I could use some ideas.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)No, wait, I think elimination is another issue. At my age it's all so confusing
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)I'm glad there are some of other 70-year-olds here at DU. I was starting to feel lonely. I have had a bit of a longer ride than you. On January 18 of this year, I turned 75. It takes a while to adjust to growing old. But I am glad to have made it this far and hope to see at least another 10 years.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)And thanks for the wishes.
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)Wishing you many more!
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Lars39
(26,109 posts)Hope your life decisions are easy.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)DFW
(54,384 posts)I first have to make it to 70 before I can contemplate the idea. I have maybe a 50/50 chance, and about a 20% chance at 80, maybe not that much.
I'm trying to cut down on work, not being overly successful. I've heard that in my profession, retirement is only official when the last nail is hammered into place in the coffin.
I don't know if it'll come to that, but if I hit 90, I'm retiring, period. I knew Helen Thomas. Helen Thomas was a friend of míne. I'm no Helen Thomas.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Sind Sie aktuell im Rheinland?
And Hell, you'll probly make it to 100.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)DFW
(54,384 posts)My parents never made it to 80 and they and ALL of their siblings had cancer, only one gradparent made it past 80.
Odds not in my favor.
Ich bin tatsächlich im Rheinland. I live in a pretty medieval town outside of Düsseldorf. This is one of my neighbors:
[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]
Solly Mack
(90,767 posts)You've always been worth the read.
May your remaining time be the ride of your life.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)Just hope I make it 70 as I have so much left to do. Happy Birthday Jackpine!
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)rurallib
(62,416 posts)I have a brother that's 70 and he's pretty young
quick - what was your phone number when you were young? Mine was 491
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)314-R.
Ir was only a 2-party line. My uncle, who lived 1/2 mile away, was 314-W. His signal was 2 short rings, and ours was 3 shorts. The operator was one short. If you wanted to call someone on your own party line, you didn't need to involve the operator or the switchboard. You used the little hand crank on the side of the wall-mounted wooden box to give their signal. Two quick little spins of the crank would produce my uncle's signal. If nobody answered right away, you'd wait a little while & repeat it.
There was no such thing as a reasonable expectation of privacy. Everybody on the line could liten in to each other's calls, and the local operator was the biggest gossip in town.
malthaussen
(17,195 posts)-- Mal
TuxedoKat
(3,818 posts)I hope you have a very happy birthday and that your '70s are a great decade for you.
amerikat
(4,909 posts)raccoon
(31,111 posts)TBF
(32,062 posts)two decades after you I similarly made it out of my rural area, but I don't know that my younger cousins are going to be so fortunate. The factories are gone (replaced by Walmart) and the UW is no longer $800/semester.
It is sad to watch a country that appears to be in decline.