When I'm 64

Who remembers the old Beatles song: When I'm 64? Aren't all Beatles songs old now! When I first heard it on the Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band LP way back in 1967, I was only 11 and thought that 64 was an age that very few could achieve. The young have a very different perception of age than those over 25 or so. When my grandmother was 64, she looked about 80 and this can be verified by the photograph taken of her with her 4 daughters in 1964 (she was born in 1900 so we always knew her age) that I looked at just the other day. What was it that made everyone look so much older then? Was it the permed hair - naturally grey already and no highlights in those days; the dresses, the hand knitted cardigans? Whatever it was, I do know that at 64 I look about 20 years younger than she did.
When I first started working at age 18, the receptionist was an extremely well-groomed woman who must, on reflection many years later, have been well over 40, but one day she asked me how old I thought she looked and I told her 29. She practically kissed the ground I walked on, but I still thought it was old!
Having now achieved this milestone, I can honestly say that it is a wonderful age to be. I've at last found out how to be healthy through eating the right foods, and my stress levels have been brought under control through exercise!
That exercise takes the form of hiking with the most wonderful group of people you could ever choose to hike with! Witty conversation, hints and tips on what books to read, series and movies to watch, investments to make or divest from, interesting life stories - all imparted while we plod along the mountain trails and over hill and dale, along beaches, up steep ravines and across streams (often dry, but still boulder-filled). Encouragement is given to those who feel they will never make it. Heated discussions take place over whether we are on the right path or whether we have seen this tree twice on the hike, and especially over not remembering that the steps were so high or the trail so steep. And yet we always get to the end of the hike, chuffed to have made it, awed by the distance and heights we have scaled, and enraptured by the beauty of the surroundings we have been privileged to pass through. As most of the group are leaning towards 80 and more, it seems I have an awful lot to look forward to still!