to ask the media to stop portraying the elderly as sad old souls

Here is how to write about older people. It is the local paper write up on a friend who is 100. www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/11465121.Wenda_cracks_the_secret_of_a_long_life/

It tells of her remarkable life without condescension or being patronising. If only all local newspaper reporters could write as well! I think the headline was written by a sub-standard sub-editor, since it is irrelevant to anything in the article except her age.

I totally agree absent it's nothing more than lazy, shoddy journalism. It's not stopping me getting on with my life Whitewaves and Thatbags, quite the opposite. I'm 71 in 2 weeks, and I like the vast majoirty of 'war babies' am living and loving my life, sans walking stick, zimmer frame or 'comfort shoes'. I just get really p...ed off with my generation being patronised by the media.

The thought of sheltered housing brings me out in a rash (that's a joke by the way)..... I do not want one someone checking up on me if I decide to stay in bed till lunchtime, or go to bed at 3 am. Which is why I really detest these portrayals of 'crumbly ole folks'.

I hate it when the press refer to someone on as 'pensioner' or 'grandmother' or 'grandad' as if that's all these people are in life. I have several 'pensioner' friends who are all around my age (I'm 65). Most of these women are attractive, trendy and feisty. We wear what we like, knee length suede boots, tight jeans and sometimes (shock horror) skirts slightly above the knee. We have modern hair styles and there is not a perm, elasticated skirt or sensible shoe in sight (not that there's anything wrong with these for those who choose to wear them). Please don't imagine muttons dressed as lambs!! I think women in their 60s/70s today are more Twiggy/Joanna Lumley than the nans in the Shreddies ad. My DH is 68 and doesn't fit the 'grandad' image as portrayed by the media either.

Oh yes, harrigran, that one about "check their smoke alarms irritates me too. So far, at 62, I'm capable of climbing on to a chair to check my own, but do you think that in 3 year's time I suddenly won't be able to do it any more?

I'm just reading "The Crime at Black Dudley" by Marjory Allingham in which one of the minor characters is "an old woman", who says, "…but I'm not an old fool, like you might imagine. Though I'm sixty-two I'm pretty spry,…". it was first published in 1929, and I think we've come quite a long way since then!

It's good being old enough to be a concession, though.
Last year I had a problem where I was not allowed to do anything much for myself. I did not mind having a couple of firemen in my house to check my fire alarm. Unfortunately I look neither like Twiggy nor Joanna Lumley.

Love Margery Allingham books Wheniwasyourage.

Let's face it, we just can't win any way they look at it.

One minute we're doddery, elderly old fools who are incapable of sensible thought, word or deed.
The next minute we're selfish, living in huge houses (?), off enjoying ourselves on endless holidays and cruises and spending our children's future inheritance.

I didn't know that a fireman would come to check your smoke alarm for you, ooh, thinks ....

I do have to wear 'sensible shoes' and have had to for most of my life. It's not a choice, it is a constant annoyance; I did rebel for quite a long time when I was young, but probably should not have done!

I wasn't suggesting that lazy journalism was stopping us from getting on with our lives, absentgrandma. What I meant was more about how much so many of seem to mind the lazy journalism instead of just ignoring it. I suppose I was thinking in terms of action not words—we are not going to stop the lazy journalism by telling each other, or the journalists, what we think, but we just might get the message across in due course by being ourselves, being people with character who live life to the full as much as anyone else who is not prevented from so doing by illness or decrepitude (I'm not using that word insultingly, only descriptively).

I'm perhaps not being very clear but I know what I mean and it does boil down to action not words, for me anyway.

I have always worn so-called sensible shoes. Really. All my life. It has nothing to do with age and everything to do with the comfort of my feet and the practicality (for my purposes) of my footwear.

It's not an annoyance for me. Having to wear what I regard as unsensible shoes would be though.

I hardly ever wear shoes.

Neither does DGD2 absent

I can't manage without them!

Getting cold in these parts.

Tartan slippers with bobbles on will do me fine once I've retired.

As office wear, they're not really acceptable...

I hate wearing shoes. I hate buying them even more and paying those prices. When I was teaching I used to wear Clarks school shoes because I could get them in girl sizes and not pay VAT. Only ever had two pairs at a time.

When I was at university back in the 1960s, when tall stiletto heels were all the rage I was once described to someone as the 'girl who always wears low heels'. This was because I always wore, not flat shoes, but shoes with what was called a 'louis' heel, a shaped 2 inch heel.

Nothing has changed over the years. I still like pretty shoes, but the heels remain low, but not flat because I need to be able to walk in them.

My DD still wears children's shoes from Clarks for work Durhamjen . She has tiny little size 3's and struggles to get a comfortable pair anywhere else. Mind you she always insists on having her feet measured on the "special machine" . She's 29 !

gillybob

Just wondering if I should do the same. However, they probably couldn't measure me accurately:

' narrow at the heel, flat at the arch, very wide at the toe - oh, that's a bunion! One foot longer than the other. We give in, please go somewhere else for your shoes!'

Apparently Clarks use an iPad for measuring now. DD swears it is totally unreliable. But I digress ....

I`ve been embracing my inner pensioner for years now. I`m so looking forward to it. I`ll be free. Soon I`ll be a real one. Cant wait. When I`m a pensioner will it be OK for me to be devastatingly outspoken and be instantly forgiven with knowing smiles? I always admired Blanche Hunt and Phyllis Pearce in Corrie- both nightmares. Brilliant!

"Embracing my inner penshioner"

Love it, jane10!

oops, superfluous 'h'

bags I rather like the new word - penshioner. I may adopt it...

Can I be a penshioner as well? (Having over ridden iPad that didn't want to let me)