Over 50s clubs

No-one has mentioned the WI. The old image has long gone and I very much enjoy the varied activities the WI provides. There a many local branches around and the one I'm a member of has a very mixed age range. At 70 I'm joint oldest and our President is in her 30s with most people being somewhere in the middle. It's a very friendly branch and we have lots of fun at the monthly meetings and the assorted spin offs such as craft evenings where we play about with a different craft each month to disguise that it's really an excuse for tea, cakes and general conviviality. Lots of opportunities to get out in friendly company.

There is an over 60 s club here and when I looked in the window as I went past they were all old dears I m 74 but a long way away from an old dear So no not for me I d prefer a mixed age group

SirChenjin Exactly! I too am in my early 50,s and I consider myself young! I work full time and won’t be retiring until I am 67 I was horrified to find out that I qualified for Age concerns services at age 50! For heavens sake I am still youngish and feel more in common with friends in their 40’s than my parents generation in their 80’s! I get very cross by being called an older person after all we all love do much longer now

Live so much longer! Wretched auto correct!

Jenpax - I absolutely agree! On a more serious note, I think it’s hugely dangerous for these organisations and clubs to encourage a societal mindset which says that we are old (or in our golden years ?) at 50. We’re only just over half way through our lifespan at 50 - it’s important to have a young outlook in order to keep fit, healthy and active as opposed to thinking that it’s time to slow down and take it easy.

SirChenjin the purpose of these clubs is not to encourage a societal mindset which says that we are old (or in our golden years) at 50.

But you need to remember when many of these clubs were set up many people, men and women, were exhausted and old at 50. Worn down by a lifetime of heavy manual labour in all weathers and low incomes and for most of their lives unable to afford medical care. The introduction of the NHS has probably done more to improve the health of older poor people than almost anything else.

I think there are very few people, if any, in their early older age who are remotely tempted to think themselves old, just because a club for older people takes members from 50.

It is like retirement schemes that take residents from 50. I never met anyone under 70 in one of those developments but they have to allow for the occasional older resident with a much younger partner.

It was a shock and revelation to me when I became a volunteer home visitor with what was known then as Age Concern, how many times I was going out to visit 'old' people, who were actually younger than me (I did the work between my mid 50s and mid-60s.

I think we should talk of the people who attend these clubs with respect. Most members continue to come from the less well off in society and most have still had a life of poorly paid unskilled manual labour, even if not as hard as that of their parents and grandparents. Had you had the lives they had had, you too would be glad of an over 60s club and the chance to meet up once a week for a cup of tea, possibly a singsong, and a day trip to Blackpool.

I'm well aware that when some of these clubs were set up things were different for many, but the club that was advertising locally for people in their golden years over 50 was absolutely not set up years ago - it's a relatively recent thing, but obviously has people running it who think of over 50 as 'old' or 'in their golden years' It's not an area of high deprivation and I am very well aware from a professional perspective that the NHS and improvements in social care, housing, public health and so on has done wonders for people (and continues to do so) but I'm also very aware that we need to do more to challenge the idea that keeping fit and active for as long isn't within the reach of many.

When groups (funded centrally) are advertising their over 50 clubs through the week when the majority of us are working and feature things such as 'gentle exercise' that concerns me as it fails to recognise the changes that have taken place in society. It's not being disrespectful to believe that.

Probably run by people in their 50s. I do also think there is some government threshold that enables groups to get funding if what they do is open to the 'over 50s.

I attend a regular Tai Chi class in the village hall, this is part funded by some government initiative to get people over 50 into activity. I could do it at the local sports centre where I do pilates, but it is cheaper to do it in the village hall.

I think there is some evidence that people start slowing down physically after 50, but you really need tospeak to the government. I can only guess.

Do you have many people in their 50s attending or are they at work during the day (assuming that they’re on during traditional business hours)?

The classes are on a Monday afternoon. I doubt there is any one under retirement age attending.

However given how many people work shifts these day, there are probably many working people under 50 who could attend. DD worked shifts for over 20 years and was a regular at the local sports centre in 'working' hours. Now she has moved to a 9 - 5 job she really misses being able to go swimming or to the gym in off peak hours.