Are we elderly or middleaged.

Over 65s make up only 11% here absent, but set to double within the decade. Still won't be anywhere near you though.

JessM I think you might mean grannyactivist who referred to 43% of her local population as being over 65. Otherwise, what won't be anywhere near me? The mind boggles.

Sorry yes. Both begin with an "a". Kind of. Doh.

I am 62 and don't feel old until I see myself through a teenager's eyes, for example young shop assistants. I shall never forget the look on my young colleagues face when I told her that hot pants were not new and I had often worn them to parties in my youth.

They don't think that we were ever as young and fashionable as they are! Mini skirts, hot pants - it's all been done before. Do you remember pushing a big old pram when we were mini skirts, what a sight we must have been!

I am 62 and don't feel old at all.
I had to retire after my third stroke but up until then my two daughters said I was more up to date than them! Three years ago I was diagnosed with rheumatoid and osteo arthritis and had to start steroid treatment. This made me gain so much weight and with that and other medication I felt quite ill. The arthritis does mean I can't do as much but my grandchildren tell me I am NOT old or Dotty, or a terrible nanna for not doing loads with them.
I do crafts, knit, do photography, read, go to the countryside, travel as much as I can. Good days and bad days, if people caught me on a bad day they would think me senile! But on the whole I am me, I won't change to suit other people, I like to learn things to keep my brain active and can discuss various subjects if people will listen.

Do you know, my GC don't seem to believe that I was ever something of a disco queen. Can't think why.

I'm 61 and DD calls me a 'little toughie' which is one of the nicest things she has ever said to me. I too think I will be elderly when I 'feel' elderly - being mostly a state of mind. Having said that, we have had our DGC (ages 1 and 2) staying with us for the last 3 days, and I have just had my first migraine in ages!!! Not enough sleep and over exerting myself. Thank goodness for migraleve.

I was taken aback in M&S last year when"the lad" serving me thought he recognised the name and asked if I had any family working at M&S " a grand-daughter for instance" I nearly cried! But first I nipped into House of Fraser and bought myself a new lippy. I know there are young grannies out there, but at just turned 62 with a baby grandson - I felt put in a very ancient pigeonhole.

A 'girl' in the same store, gracesmum, when I asked about boys' dressing gowns, suggested I should 'get someone to look on the web site' for me. You can imagine the frosty response that received. I don't think she will make that mistake again.

Having turned 60 2 days ago I certainly don't feel elderly, in my head I'm still in my thirties!!!! In fact I find it hard to belive that I am now 60.

I had a great birthday card from my former work colleagues which read 'So you think you're middle aged? How many 120 year olds do you know'!!! Brilliant!

However, I can't wait to get my bus pass so DH and I can start exploring this lovely country we live in.

I didn't consider my Mum elderly until she reached her late eighties and became frail due to heart problems. She lived to the age of 89 and was still 'up to date' in her dress and thinking and never went out without her makeup on.

Happy 60th Birthday Nannyliz

Hitting 65 I was worried about loosing those precious brain cells that were supposed to disappear with age. Then I discovered a brilliant book (written by a science journalist so actually readable!)which actually brought together all the latest research on ageing to show our brain power actually gets better as we age. We just make better use of both sides of our brain. Cheered me up no end! Don't know if Gransnet allow things to be recommended but I would be happy to pass on title and author's name to anyone interested.

Yes and i believe the notion that you are automatically losing brain cells is a myth isn't it? Seem to remember reading something recently about stem cells in brain creating new brain cells all our lives. If you learn something new it develops a bit of your brain. If you stop doing something the relevant part of the brain starts to shut down. etc
Can you share the book title?

The book is 'The Secret Life of the Grown -up Brain' : Discover The Surprising Talents of the MIddle-aged mInd. By Barbara Strauch. I keep going back and dipping in as there is so much in it. Highly recommended,especially if you have been worrying about memory lapses - don't it's normal - we just get too busy! A friend with a Mum with Altzheimers, had been worrying about her own memory lapses but she found this helped get them in perspective.

At 55 I think of myself as young, I think of my parents as being middle aged, they are both in their late 70's and very active. Mum goes on shopping trips to various towns and cities every week with her 80 year old sister, she will look after her great grandchildren, even having them to stay ovenight sometimes. Dad, a plumber by trade has always said he would never retire and he has certainly kept his word. As far as I'm concerned it's mainly in the mind - keep that active, keep yourself fit and healthy and you can't go far wrong.

My mother in law is 87 next week and very very with it.

I think people start to lose the little grey cells when they retire and just vegetate. People who actually 'do' things are much more likely to stay with it. Reading, even playing bingo, listening to music or playing an instrument, getting into technology like social networking and blogging, playing board games in fact anything that gets the brain working.

I also read that socialising is good for you. Meeting up for a good laugh and chat with friends or going to a club where you talk about the news of the day is an excellent way of exercising the little grey cells.

I try and keep with the latest music and TV programmes the little people like so I know what they are talking about!

I have 3 friends..one is 83 she has just gone off to Australia on a months holiday to visit one of her daughters, she is travelling solo for the first time as her husnband died in July this year, this is after traveling to Scotland on the trian with the dog to visit her other daughter, prior to that she had just come back from a cruise with friends her persuaded her to join them after the illness of her hubby. she swims every morning, does all her own house work9cleans massive BIG! windows, still very capable of driving!

my 2nd friend is 84 and unfortunatly showing signs of Demntia, but still lives in her own home with very little help.

my 3rd friend 76 is as active as my first friend.

I have always said that there is something in the water as they all live within 100 yrds of each other..there is also a man who is nearly 90 lives next door to one of them..he still drives.plays golf does his own garden gets the ladders out mows the lawn etc...and!! (think I may go and live near them myself lol lol)

I was a grandmother at 42, when I could pass for mid-thirties, so I was often asked about my little boy, and could say happily that he was actually my grandson. I was a great-grandmother at 65 but I have to admit the best I have had said is that they were my grandchildren! I am no longer glamorous but I no longer care , or try.
I am happy with my own health, both mental and physical, especially since I lost weight and got much fitter. However, I do find that my teenage grandchildren seem to think that I have lost my sense of humour and my love of a good 'risque' joke. I don't comment on their Facebook pages, as they say it inhibits their friends to know someone's Nan is reading their daft remarks. I read them, but keep in touch by private messages.
I wonder what they would think if they read some of our recent postings and topics!
Was it Philip Larkin who said that sex was invented in 1963?

I am 64 today and always used to think how old people were when they reached 60! Now I hate to think anyone might call me elderly or want to put me in a Geriatric ward or treat me any differently....
I feel a youngish Granny, full of energy (well most of the time) and looking forward to lunch out in Covent Garden and a visit to the Leonardo Exhibition in the morning with my DH.

I was on a volunteering working holiday last year and after the evening meal on our last day there one of the volunteers said that she took one look at me when I arrived and thought that they would all be carrying me for the week. Nobody needed to carry me at all as I well knew or I would not have volunteered. What really surprised me about her comment is the gasps of dissent it raised from the others in the group, ranging in age from students doing Duke of Edinburgh award scheme work, through thirty, forty and fiftysomething years old people to me at well past seventy, is that it was one of the older members of the group who made the comment. I have been on these holidays several times before and have another booked for this year. Marvellous and cheap too.

I can't volunteer in England, Cyril, but I spent two weeks conversing in English with Spanish business people when I lived in the Pyrenees. In the evenings, we had to get in groups and put on little sketches, or give a talk, all in English. We did not get paid, but we got quite luxurious accommodation and excellent food and drink. Most of the volunteers were young Aussies or Kiwis doing the EE (European Experience) and there were some from Canada and the USA as well. I was the oldest person there and I threw myself into all the activities with gusto as I was determined to show those kids what we wrinklies are made of.

Well done Greatnan. Good to know I am not an oddity. Going back to the same Basecamp several times has allowed me to see the changes in the countryside around and realize the variety of work needed in managing woodlands in the different seasons. It has been a wonderful experience. One thing I learned was how to load a kiln to make charcoal. It took three of us, one a professional, a whole day to load it, with a couple of professionals sawing the wood to good lengths for us and they were going to light it, after we volunteers had finished for the day, and wait as long as it took through the night to ensure the burn went safely and correctly to produce the valuable charcoal. I am only sorry I did not know about this kind of holiday before.

I'll be 66 on Saturday, and, apart from the ** knee, I think I'm OK! I trave a lot, write, read, volunteer, give talks, run things (no, not RUN - I never took to that!)

But I remember my Grandmother who as long as I knew her, was a little round lady in a pinnie, until she got dressed up to go out in the evenings to her whist drives - always in black, with the hat with hatpins etc. She died when she was my age. So I must be recalling her in her fifties, but she wore the "uniform" of an old lady.

Happy Birthday maggiep