Old Masters
October 28, 2014 6:41 AM   Subscribe

After 80, some people don’t retire. They reign. A collection of portraits of and interviews with men and women of a certain age. Here there be wisdom.
posted by Optamystic (19 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Seeing Betty White at the end was a kicker. RIP.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:51 AM on October 28, 2014


Betty White is very much alive.
posted by Optamystic at 6:53 AM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


wait, no. Apparently she's not dead.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:54 AM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


...shame about Abe Vigoda, though.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:55 AM on October 28, 2014 [2 favorites]


Damn these are some alpha old folk.
posted by lalochezia at 6:59 AM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


I'm happy for them that they're doing what they love but I really hope that I'm not still sitting here at my desk in thirty years when I'm 80. My plan is to spend a decade or two of retirement drinking coffee, reading books, playing video games and going to the occasional film festival.
posted by octothorpe at 7:00 AM on October 28, 2014 [4 favorites]


Although I'm deeply sympathetic to the lottery-ticket theory of success, these people didn't get to where they are by being the sorts of people who ever want to retire. They bought a lot of lottery tickets, and kept buying them after they'd already won every lottery there was to play. When I read biographies of these sorts of successful and productive people, the thing that always strikes me is how damn lazy I am in comparison. Not that doing everything you possibly can guarantees success, but it definitely helps. Which is to say, these are the sort that just keep turning retirement down, and that quality about them is important to their status as 'masters'.
posted by dis_integration at 7:13 AM on October 28, 2014 [9 favorites]


Women who find success in their 60s or older are sources of hope for me!

Also, that's a helluvalotta white folk.
posted by allthinky at 7:28 AM on October 28, 2014


Also, that's a helluvalotta white folk.

Not a lot of avenues open to you 60 years ago when you're not white.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:35 AM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Ugh.

I hate these sort of articles, softening its audience up for the inevitable postponement of retirement age: see these people are happy and content in their high prestige jobs at eighty and ninety, so you can work till seventy.
posted by MartinWisse at 7:42 AM on October 28, 2014 [8 favorites]


Oh god, Carl Reiner is 92. How am I supposed to cope with this.
posted by poffin boffin at 7:50 AM on October 28, 2014


I hate these sort of articles, softening its audience up for the inevitable postponement of retirement age: see these people are happy and content in their high prestige jobs at eighty and ninety, so you can work till seventy.

I see where you're coming from, but I don't see this as an appeal to keep you filing TPS reports into your winter years. I think it's more meant to encourage us to rethink the common conception of useless doddering seniors who have nothing to contribute anymore. I mean, yeah, these people won some combination the talent/privilege/luck lottery, but I still think it's awesome to see Roy Haynes drumming in front of zebra stripes.
posted by Think_Long at 8:02 AM on October 28, 2014 [5 favorites]


I went to work for Sen. Arlen Specter when he was 79 (and a newly minted Democrat). In a getting-to-know-you conversation, he asked about my parents, and I told him that my father was turning 80, a year older than the Senator.

"Oh yes?" the Senator asked. "What does he do?"

"He's a retired musician," I said.

"Yes, but what does he do?" the Senator replied.

I said he read books, listened to music, and went to museums and the theater with my mother. Sen. Specter chuckled--not the old age he had chosen for himself. He was up at 6AM to play squash most every day. And when he lost his reelection bid, a number of his close friends took me aside and said they were worried that without his job, he wouldn't live very long.

He did die two years later, after the cancer he had beaten twice came back. He was formidable, but also willing to learn, and as sharp as any of his colleagues. I hope that if I make it to that age, that I can still be doing something I love so much, if I still want to.
posted by oneironaut at 8:12 AM on October 28, 2014 [4 favorites]


Poor dead Betty White. They just won't let her corpse have a moment's rest. It's amazing what they can do with animatronics these days.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:57 AM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Ha! Betty White's exercise is also mine.
posted by Phredward at 9:32 AM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


I said he read books, listened to music, and went to museums and the theater

This is exactly the retirement I want for myself, but I don't see it as inactivity. It won't be so much "retirement" as "finally getting to do the things I want to do."
posted by JanetLand at 10:35 AM on October 28, 2014 [4 favorites]


I think it's more meant to encourage us to rethink the common conception of useless doddering seniors who have nothing to contribute anymore.

Eh, I think this is the sugar coating for what MartinWisse is saying. The support system for older people and the economy in general are crumbling, and it seems like most people will have to keep working till they die, so the message changes from "enjoy your golden years, you've earned them" to "enjoy working forever".

"You don't need Social Security or Medicare, you lazy leech! Look at Bob over there, 85 and working and earning his keep!"

It all seems a part of the message that your work is your life and you need it or you are nothing.
posted by Sangermaine at 10:54 AM on October 28, 2014


As somebody who hates the work he does for money but loves the work he does for free, I can't wait for retirement. I'm going to be busy as fuck and I'm going to live forever.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 10:58 AM on October 28, 2014 [3 favorites]


It all seems a part of the message that your work is your life and you need it or you are nothing.

I think it's clear that for these people, work is their life, but in the best way. The thing that I hope to do for actual money one day, instead of for free while I work desk jobs to pay the bills, is my passion and calling and I plan on doing it until I drop dead. (Which, to be fair, given my current lifestyle is highly unlikely to be the far side of 80...)

I think it's a piece saying the thing that makes you burn from within doesn't die out just because you reach an arbitrary age. These people have passion and purpose, it's not about work for work's sake. And yes, not everyone has the luck or opportunity to pursue their passion, but that is a different conversation.

This just says that there is no need for you to believe society's lie that you will without doubt be a worthless, hollow shell at 92. I found it really inspiring.
posted by billiebee at 4:19 PM on October 28, 2014


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