I’m starting a new chapter in life – retirement.

Where did the years go?

My first grown-up job was as a secretary at the Baton Rouge Exxon plant. I loved new technology and was eager to put what I’d learned in school to use. I was also ready to start getting a paycheck.

I remember looking at the older secretaries and wondering why they were still there. I arrogantly thought they should retire and make room for the young ones. After all, we knew everything and they were dinosaurs.

We young ones would gripe about them at lunch and claim if we could retire, we’d do it in a minute. Walk away from the grind and spend our days doing what we wanted to do. Forget work.

Now I’m at the other end of the spectrum, and I know why older folks are reluctant to leave their jobs.

Retirement is scary. For many, work defined us, gave us a purpose.

All that changes when we clean out our desks and leave.

But even though our daily routine is changing, most of us still have some fire in our belly. That doesn’t change because we’re no longer punching the clock.

Young people think they have a corner on the market when it comes to passion for changing the world.

That’s a trait embracing each and every age group, from my mom’s generation that taught us how to recycle, value democracy and to fight for what we believed in to my generation that learned presidents weren’t to be trusted.

Those old secretaries might not have known how to use a word processor, but they taught me how to be professional in a world where women were second-class citizens.

What goes around comes around. I had to smile when I overheard two millennials talking about the quality of vinyl records. Those of us who owned Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” 45-record could’ve told them that.

The world still grieves for injustices. My generation remembers being saddened when The Beatles broke up and heartsick when John Lennon was killed. We grieved through the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy.

We survived hip-huggers, go-go boots and pet rocks. We were lucky enough to see an astronaut walk on the moon and watch a young Luke Skywalker harness the power of The Force.

Now we’re wondering why a younger generation pays big bucks for Spanx when we threw those miserable girdles out back in the 70’s.

Those of us calculating our Social Security numbers can bring some old-fashioned common sense to the world, just as our grandparents and parents did.

The back-yard garden, the one our great-grandparents tended, has made a huge come back in the past few months. Young families are learning the satisfaction of growing their own cucumbers, tomatoes and squash.

We old folks have a Mr. Coffee or percolator in the kitchen, and we chuckle every time we spot someone with an expensive throwaway coffee cup. We’re enjoying home-brewed coffee the exact strength we want for about 20 cents a cup.

The peaceful protest marches of the 1960s actually brought about change. Integration in the 1970s taught us we could only learn acceptance when we got to know people of a different race or culture.

And a comfortable, well-worn flannel shirt is worth hanging on to season after season.

Maybe the old ways aren’t so bad after all.

 

    This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.