Annie’s Mailbox: ‘Old-timer’ also a fine word

Dear Annie: I read the letter from “California Dreamer,” a woman of merely 59, who writes about how old she is now that she can’t see shampoo bottles or tolerate scratchy labels in her clothes, etc. I am 63, and I don’t have all this trouble. I never liked scratchy clothes, and I was born with very poor vision, so it’s not a matter of age. Nevertheless, I don’t have these problems in the shower.

Using phrases like “newly squinty-eyed aging hippies” was really offensive. When are you going to quit buying into this claptrap that all people over a certain age are falling apart and going downhill? My dad was in prime condition until he died at 88. I have no physical problems, exercise and work out all the time, take no medicines and look better now than I did 30 years ago.

Don’t use adjectives like “elderly” and “aging,” which are more appropriate for a block of molding cheese. – No Senior Citizen in Salem, Ore.

Dear Salem: You are a bit oversensitive. As two of those “newly squinty-eyed aging hippies,” we don’t find this kind of discussion offensive at all. In fact, we’re hoping baby boomers can help change the attitudes of people who get their hackles up at any reference to aging (a perfectly good word, by the way). We agree that a great many people over 50 are perfectly healthy and happy, but the truth is, certain problems crop up more often as we hit those years, and it serves no purpose to deny the reality. We think getting older should be embraced and cherished, and if that means designer bifocals and larger labels, why pretend otherwise? Here’s more:

From Santa Fe, N.M.: I am 42 years old and wear reading glasses, so I understand “California Dreamer.” Instead of designing different bottles for the boomer generation and others, I have a solution, at least in the shower. I use a large indelible marker and put a large “S” on my shampoo, “C” on my conditioner, “FC” on my face cleanser and “TP” on my toothpaste (I hope there’s no way to mistake that for toilet paper).

New Hampshire: It’s not too early for “California Dreamer” to develop some elder smarts, one of which is not waiting for product-design people to catch on. Put a rubber band on the toothpaste tube and shampoo bottle, tell the pharmacist you don’t want child-proof pill bottles, and snip (don’t rip) those labels. Working out solutions to new problems is just one of the pleasures of aging.