Transcript - Lesson 7

Social Roles and Relationships in Old Age

Roles and relationships

Well, i think it is very important to begin with the recognition that we're in the middle of a demographic revolution, and stated simply, never before in the history of our species have so many individuals lived so long. That's the demographic background. The social roles implications of that are as follows for most of human history, we have had roles, which are social positions, that have rights and duties and expectations associated with them. We've had a fairly clear definition of childhood roles and then of adult roles, like parent and marriage partner, and economic roles. What we haven't had are retirement roles. Today's aged are pioneers in time. They are creating social roles for a large number of individuals for the first time in history.

What roles do older people play? How do we learn about the social roles of older adults? And what has research taught us about the relationships of the elderly? What new roles may older people take on in the future? Next on growing old in a new age. Being an older person in our society means different things to different people. Perhaps this is because older people have so much autonomy. When you're thinking about role of an older person as an attribute, what you're thinking is freedom and autonomy. Most people who are retired and who have launched their children are in a situation where they really don't have to do anything with anybody they don't want to do anything with. They don't have to be with people they don't want to be with nor occupy a role they don't want to occupy. So there's a lot of choice operating there, which means there won't be specific roles you can point to and say, "this is what older people are doing."

older adults play an increasingly wide range of roles in today's society. Most important are family roles and relationships where the give-and-take between generations can build social support, emotional reassurance, companionship, advice, and helpful services for all family members. More than 3/4 of older adults have children, grandchildren, and brothers and sisters. Nearly half have great-grandchildren. Older adults who live alone or have little family often create social support networks-- close friends or extended family members.

Some older people live with their families. Others remain close emotionally but live independently. While i feel a closeness to my children, i don't want to interfere in their lives. I see an advantage in living far away from them, although most people think it's something to be pitied that i don't live near any of my children. But i'm able to visit them when the spirit moves me, and i'm able to come home to my own life style and independence. If i lived close to them-- even if i said i won't be a baby-sitter-- if some emergency turned up, i'd drop everything and be there for them. When i make an occasional visit and my daughter-in-laws say to me, "why can't you stay longer?" my answer is, "because i want you to be glad to see me come and sorry to see me go."

Friendships are also important to older people and especially important for those with few family members. Faye cruse has both younger and older friends. [faye cruse] i still have many friends. Fortunately, i believe, for me-- ahem! Excuse me. Most of my friends are younger than i am, and i think this is a very great thing for me. I learn from those friends. I know what's going on in today's world. I am not stuck way back yonder, where so many people are at my age.

i have friends who are a great deal older than i am. I'm very close to them. I don't like to sit home and twiddle my thumbs, doing nothing, but i like to make lunch or make a dinner for some of my friends, maybe who aren't quite as active as i am presently. I like to go out. I have a physical handicap which keeps me home considerably more than i care to be, but it does not keep me from the love and the closeness of very dear friends.

Lillian salazar has spent most of her adult life as a caregiver-- first to her terminally ill son, then to her stepmother and father. She recently started a new career as teacher at a local community college. The friendships she's developed with students have a special importance in her life. I love my students. I have, mostly, a very good relationship with my students. We have full semesters, and that gives us many weeks to know each other. When a semester ends, i really feel like i know these people. My entire career is 2 1/2 years over there. Still, many of these students are still my friends. We see each other on the campus. They still come and ask me for assistance, for letters of reference and such. I feel like i'm part of somebody's life, that i can feel the joy. I don't have to take them home. I don't have to do their laundry. I don't have to feed them, but i get a form of satisfaction that i've done something. I truly mean that. I love doing for people. That's my downfall. This is so much nicer because there's an end. You can come home, and you're free.

Sometimes older people take on surrogate family roles for their neighbors in senior housing or retirement communities. There are some people on the outside who see this almost as a dumping ground for the elderly in their own families. "we'll put them in there, and the neighbors will take care of them." neighbors are very helpful in here-- very congenial and very giving and run errands for people and take people to the doctor and that sort of thing.

Relatively few people are still working at age 65. Freed from the pressures of work, they enjoy a wide range of leisure activities. Some are things they've always done. Other activities are new. Mildred tuttle, a former y.w.c.a. Executive, is now a volunteer board member at a retirement community in southern california. She talks about the similarities and differences in these two roles. My position was one of staff responding to volunteers. When i moved in here, i reversed the roles, and i became a volunteer responding to staff. Well, the professional work is 8:00 to 5:00, but i used to work more than that because i had evening meetings and things like that. You can't walk away from it. I used to envy those volunteers who said, "i'll be in europe. I won't be here." when i came here and started serving on the boards, i'd say, "i'm away that week." there isn't the same strict adherence to the job. If you accept your job seriously, there's a certain dedication to it. We have to hang in there and do what's expected of us.

Mrs. Tuttle's other leisure activities are not very different from what they were in the past. I was playing golf when i was working. I still am playing golf. When i was a housewife and not working, i did that, too. I've always been interested in plants and gardening and growing vegetables, and i'm still doing that. In addition to the space we have here, we have some, what we call, minifarms that are located in another part of leisure world. We grow vegetables in that area. I have one of those spaces. I enjoy digging in the dirt. I enjoy card playing. I'm still involved in that. I used to make all my own clothes. Now i make all my slacks and skirts. I don't make all the jackets, but i still sew. My leisure activities are pretty much the same. I read a lot. I don't spend much time at television.

Learning and social roles

As the older population grows, accurate information about aging and older people becomes increasingly important. Researchers collect information about social roles through three basic methods-- observation, interviews, and surveys. In observational analysis, the researcher makes a detailed recording of a person's behavior and interactions with others in an objective, neutral manner. Dr. Vern bengtson gives an example. And here i'm thinking of the work of jaber gubrium at florida state university. He spent a year in a nursing home several years back, just writing down what happened, and he published his account in a book called living and dying in murray manor. And all he did was watch the interactions of the patients in a terminal, uh... Long-term care facility, the interactions of the staff with each other, the staff with the patients, the doctor who occasionally came in-- very occasionally-- and the administrator. And from that, he came up with a, uh, astonishing variety of activities that reflected roles.

A second way to gather information is to interview people and to categorize their responses. Dr. Atchley learned the value of the interview method early in his career. The first study that i did that looked at social role actually was looking at the relationship between the job role and the self-concept, and what i was interested in was the effect of retirement on the self-concepts of career women, and i picked two different occupational categories-- schoolteachers and telephone operators. These were the days when mostly women were telephone operators. And i had gone through the traditional sociology literature and found that everybody predicted that, you know, when people retired, this was the end of life as we know it. You expected that people retired and just dropped off the face of the earth. So i had all of my negative hypotheses about what i expected retirement to do to these women.

I did my first practice interview on this 82-year-old schoolteacher. At the end, i said, "thanks. I appreciate your answers." she said, "when will you ask about the good stuff?" i said, "tell me about it." so for the next hour and a half, i sat there getting writer's cramp, listening to all the good stuff about retirement and why it wasn't a problem for her and her self-concept. Recast the interview schedule and did another study, looking for both positive and negative outcomes. If i'd done that survey in the mail or sent people to do the interviews and hadn't done them myself, i never would have found those positive effects, because i was there to listen.

A third method for gathering information is the survey. The roper and gallup polls are examples of well-known national surveys. A survey collects data from a representative sample of a relatively large population. Information is gathered by questionnaire, which may be mailed to participants or administered by telephone or personal interview. Surveys on social roles might ask these questions... Dr. Bengtson describes the results of a survey which compared the roles of older men and women and suggests it holds a message for today's young men. Older females characteristically have more roles than 70-to-75-year-old males. Uh... I think the implication for that, at least for college students... College men should right now begin diversifying. They should begin investing effort in a variety of roles so that in 30 years, 40 years, when they retire from a formal occupational role, they will not have to look around and say, "well, now what do i do?" that's long-term planning.

Researchers who depend only on surveys to understand the behavior of older people may be missing very important information. One of the big liabilities they always have is that they're analyzing data collected from people that they haven't talked to. I advise all students who are doing that to find people who are like the folks who responded to that survey and do the interview with them so they'll understand what look was on their face, where they had problems with the question. I always use multimethod. I've found that to be an effective tool in looking at social roles.

Role stability and change

Researchers who study the roles and relationships of older people have discovered that, in a lifetime, the nature of social roles and relationships changes. For example, many older people undergo a social role loss when they retire and lose daily contact with co-workers. Other roles may be lost through the death of a spouse or through illness. Old age isn't only a time of role losses. Roles can be gained as older adults take on new challenges, new friendships, new associations. As time passes, familiar, longstanding roles can develop to include new responsibilities and expectations. In many instances, an older person's roles and relationships continue.

Research indicates this continuity is important to a sense of well-being. The continuity that people develop is something i found almost right out of the blocks when i started doing research on aging. My first research came out with a notion of one of the reasons retirement didn't have a big effect on these retired schoolteachers was they were keeping their identities as schoolteachers. The identity stayed where it was because they were proud they'd been a successful schoolteacher and they had gotten 50 christmas cards every christmas from former students. Whenever these students would come back to town-- and they're now 50-- they'd come to see miss wildes or whoever. These people didn't drop their identity as a schoolteacher just because they retired. This notion of continuity was driven into me at the beginning of when i started studying aging. The more i studied it, the more i kept running into this issue of people maintaining a thread through their life.

Hayward king illustrates how this thread of continuity works and how it can help in times of great change. It started with a group of us in a junior college in southern california. Uh... Hungry for an art training that we didn't have in los angeles, and we knew about the california school of fine arts here in san francisco, and we were among the 12 that got the first bachelor of fine arts. And when that was about finished, i received a fellowship to go to paris and study art. After spending most of his professional career as a museum registrar and curator, health problems made it impossible to remain employed in those roles. After teaching art for a short time, he was forced to retire. Though his circumstances became more difficult, a benefit was he had more time to spend on his own art. I don't feel shut out at all from art. I've been supportive of it, and it's been supportive of me, in spite of whatever has happened to me.

florence austin has been helping people ever since her youth, when she was raised by officers of the salvation army, so it's not surprising that in her 80s, she's still helping people as a volunteer. We have a 95-year-old lady here. When her lady that gets her meals cannot come-- her car is broke down-- i go down there and get her meal, put it on the table, and see that she gets out of bed and eats and that she gets back in the bed. That's one of my volunteer jobs. Then i have this lady across the street that needs to walk once a week or oftener. I usually try to do it once a week. I take her around to the small stores. She likes that. And what else? Oh, and then i have cathy. We call her cathy the poet. She has to get someone on the telephone, and you have to listen to her for 30 minutes. Finally, you say, "we'll talk some more later," and you have to hang up. I try to not do it more than 30 minutes, but she has to have an ear to talk to about all her troubles.

For mildred tuttle, continuity spans generations. My parents were danish, and the danes do allow their children a great deal of freedom and will even allow them to develop at their own rate of speed. So they were not too restrictive as parents, and so i have not been either. I've had a good relationship with my children. I have two daughters and four grandchildren and one great-grandchild. We're in communication regularly, but it's never a question of somebody telling somebody else what to do. They don't try to control me, and i don't try to control them. I think that's a terrible thing to happen to people, yet it happens in families a great deal. They're always interested in what i'm doing. We get together for the holidays, birthdays, and things like that.

Like mildred tuttle, doris and eric birchander of massachusetts continue to play important roles for their two adult daughters. They've discovered that parenthood doesn't stop when children grow up and leave home. "a" and "x," "b" and "x." here's "w" and "x." no. Wait a minute. I see them more now than i did when they were in high school. Then, i was looking for them. We see them often. Ellen will drop in for something to eat, for money, uh... For anything that's going at the time. And sheila-- i see them at least once or twice a week. They're great.

Continuing relationships with friends serve many different needs and range from casual to very close. The birchanders have been playing cards with the same couple for many years. We've been playing cards for over a period of time. I play partner with dot. George is partners with eric. Both of them are card sharks. We don't give a hang who wins, but we want to win once in a while. It gets rough at times. I got a straight. Doris, that coffee's just as bad as it ever was. It really is terrible! They play here one monday night. We go over their house another monday night. This is our monday night out. It's four packs of canasta decks, and we sit there with all these cards. It's hard to hold them. George has more problems because he has arthritis in his hands. He has a hard time holding onto the cards. He saves them all the time, and he gets us. He really enjoys playing. So does eric. We both enjoy playing. That's our little fun for the, you know, week.

As a longtime teacher and school administrator, marian cowan continues to identify with her professional roles. I was born in boston, massachusetts, and, um... We lived there until i was probably school age. I remember attending the first year of school in cambridge, and it was a very interesting, small, but very traditional school just across the street from harvard university. Early on, we realized that if we were going to be very successful, that we would certainly not have time to play. My father moved his entire family to indiana, and i attended elementary school there and junior high school, graduated from crispus attucks high school in indianapolis. I, uh... Left there and went to howard university, where i spent the four years and returned to indianapolis to teach. Um... Shortly after that, um... I was married, and my husband and i moved to jarvis christian college, where we served for 10 years. It's one of our church-related schools. Marian cowan has been an active member and leader of her church through her adult life. Health problems are now forcing marian to make a difficult decision. She faces a move from california to indiana, but the transition will be easier because of a familiar role. I grew up in the church in indianapolis. Two of my sisters are very, very active in that church at the present time. I really consider that church my church away from home. My youngest sister is a sunday school superintendent. She's a retired teacher. She's already informed me that they need a director of audiovisual, and i've done that. That would be delightful. I would enjoy that. I'd hate to give up my church home here. We've been here many years. I'd hate to give it up, but i think that the transition from united christian church to faith united would not be a big problem. I think the change from the community in which i live in the compton area would be a little bit distressing, but then i'm not sure that i have that kind of a choice.

While certain roles and relationships remain stable, others change. For example, definitions of parenthood and family responsibilities sometimes evolve as people grow older. This kind of evolution can be described as role development. In the case of immigrant populations, the need to develop or enhance existing roles can be critical. When immigrants come to a new land, they have to balance tradition with the demands of their new country. Thac do bui and his family fled vietnam. Mr. Bui feels keenly the role of preserver of his native culture. [speaking vietnamese] [translator] my only wish since i arrived in america is that all of my children and grandchildren to preserve and nurture the culture and the tradition which the vietnamese people, um... It's very precious to our people. But wishing alone doesn't do anything. It requires work and time. I try my very hard to work slowly, bit by bit, to teach the younger ones-- i mean here, my grandchildren-- and i'm very happy to see that it is working out, because it's not perfectly as i wanted it, but it's very rewarding to see the result. It is very fruitful.

Faye cruse, a widow living in a retirement community, has developed new family roles, including a relationship with her nephews and others who live and work in her neighborhood. They've become her family. At this point in my life, my family is very small. I am the last of our immediate family. I have no brothers, no sisters. Mother and dad have been gone some time. I do have two nephews who are very sweet and good. One nephew lives in leisure world, just about one long block from me. He keeps an eye on me pretty much. So i feel fortunate to have the two boys. But i have, through the years, with all the contacts with employees, and, um... The residents, i've built my own little family. Friendships also evolve over time.

Mollie pier now finds herself providing an important service for her network of friends. I am also, more or less, the designated driver for my friends because many of my friends no longer drive, due to either bad eyesight, or maybe they never learned to drive, or there are other reasons. So i take them to the theater or shopping or whatever it is we need to go. They're very appreciative of this. I know the appreciation's there. I'm happy to do it. As long as they don't impose with unreasonable demands, it's fine. It makes me feel good to know i still can do it.

Monsignor charles fahey of the third age center of fordham university believes a hospitable, generous nature is a key to development of social roles. He describes how his own parents developed and expanded their traditional roles. My father was a peddler-- traveled all over new york. When he retired, he said, "i'm not going on another trip or eating dinner out." he hasn't for the past 15 years. At the very time, my mother would be ready to fly. They got to do that differently. The good news is, they live in a neighborhood, middle- or lower middle-class. They are smaller homes, where young people can buy them. There's always been small children in the home-- uh, in the neighborhood. Those couples, most instances, both work. When they leave, they don't worry if their child misses the bus because charley and elizabeth will take them to school. The kids trample in and out. Thank god my parents think it's more important being involved with children than having their flowers look nice. I come home, and my parents are on the porch with the young couples, talking about sex, and it's wonderful to see that kind of reciprocity that's involved with them being hospitable.

So growth and development are not the sole domains of youth. We are not just merely echoes of the nursery, that at the end of the first five years, we're not imprinted so that there's no change. This is one of the things which we notice not only in the middle-aged and young, but also in the older person-- a tremendous range of flexibility, a sense that, uh, new horizons, new playing fields are always available to us. I think if we view in terms of life span the fact that where we were when we were 20, that already has fixed us, like a taxidermist taking a butterfly and sticking it into some collection, we're doing an injustice, not only to the old person, but to the human being.

Old age is by no means only a time of continuity or development. It's also a time of loss. The major losses of old age are well-known-- retirement and the death of friends and family. Illness and disability also cause many older people to give up their usual activities and may change family roles-- when a husband becomes his disabled wife's caregiver, for instance. Still others move, giving up not only their homes, but also their friends, churches, and longtime relationships.

Sylvia davis came from a large family. After losing their spouses, sylvia and three siblings moved into a single household. The three sisters and one brother lived together happily for many years. Sylvia acted as caregiver for the family. Now she is the last remaining family member. And there were 10 children in the family, and just, uh, last november--october, my, uh, brother passed away. He was three years younger than i, and, uh, i'm the last of 10. I have nobody else in the world. I'm all alone. When i get up in the morning, nobody around, it's very difficult. And at night, nobody here, and that's hard. Very, very hard. But i try to make myself think of happy days, you know, happier times, and, uh...it helps. And i also thank-- thank god i was with my sister and my brother. I was up day and night with them, and i'd get up five and six times a night because i'd be afraid they were gone, you know, and i just think it's wonderful he isn't suffering anymore.

Monsignor charles fahey illustrates how the loss of a valued role can have debilitating effects. We had one fellow who was a brilliant biologist. Even though fordham was very strong in terms of, um... Of liberal arts, we'd never have trouble getting students into medical school, largely because of father x. He could write with both hands at once. He was brilliant at illustrations, schematics, that are still used in terms of the biological systems. Jeez, the day he retired, he was so angry, so upset. "the jesuits are falling apart. New york city is all gone. They're ruining the city." you know, everything was wrong, and he just got into the most narrow world. Nobody liked to be with him because he always complained, and he just withdrew. I'm a member of the public health council. I'd say, "joe, tell me about the endocrine system." he'd be growling about the pope. I said, "forget that. Tell me about the endocrine system." he'd get started, and he'd go for an hour. I had a semester's course in an hour. By the end of it, he's full of life, and we're interacting. We got people that should know about the endocrine system and a university that still could use him, but he did not have the sense or ability to connect. The day he stopped being professor so-and-so, he stopped being a human being.

Other forms of role loss have come to the forefront in recent years. Homelessness and loss of homeland are two examples. Thac do bui describes his difficulty in adapting to a new life in the u.s. After leaving vietnam. [translator] well, i am experiencingthe same thing as a lot of the older vietnamese people who left our motherland. It is very hard to adapt to the new life over here, but the main thing is that we gain freedom, which is already lost. We are very homesick because it can't be helped. It is our birthplace with all the memories, um...all the friends, and...it's very often... Vividly in my mind, uh... And...make it very, very difficult to forget. Homelessness is a devastating loss that can occur at any age. Older people are not immune.

Betty crowder of the canon kip community center and the episcopal sanctuary, san francisco... We sleep 235 people daily at the episcopal sanctuary. 30%-35% of those people are age 60 and over. It is a large-- it's a big problem. We're just hitting the tip of the iceberg. If you go to other centers around the city, they are also sleeping homeless elderly people 60-plus. Frank catanzaro was homeless in chicago and moved to san francisco to escape the harsh winter weather. I became...homeless like this, uh... Very quickly, it seemed. Uh, i don't know... What...happened, even why this happened to me. But i, uh, had nowhere to go, no place to stay. I had no money, i was out of work, and i just took a chance, you might say, and i came to san francisco.

there's an underlying cause for homelessness. Homelessness is not a social-work problem. The underlying causes are. Underlying causes bring these people to me. The majority of people have an underlying cause. Whether it's mental health or substance abuse, there's an underlying cause. It could be joblessness. The fact that, um, the skills that are required today, um, these people don't have them. They were maybe functionally illiterate before, um...but were able to hold down routine jobs. Now technology has improved, and they can't hold down jobs. But whatever the underlying cause, the result is a bitter pill.

Being with nothing, with no money, no place to live, uh...having my difficulties, i feel useless. Many homeless people have lost more than shelter. They've also lost contact with their family and friends. I was married, and i had-- had two children, two grown sons, but after my wife and i got divorced, they both went in the service, and i pretty well lost track of everybody after that. Looking toward the future, unless something is done rather quickly about building some affordable housing, the problem is going to grow. It is not going to decrease at all. It's going to get larger and, um, hopefully not uncontrollable.

Older people in inner cities face many kinds of losses. Senior centers can help members cope. We have a lot of housing and financial problems down in the tenderloin. Checks don't come, and landlords are throwing people out, or the rents go up. So those are some of the biggest issues we deal with. We also have a lot of people with mental health problems, um, that can either be helped here and maintained at the senior center-- mainstreamed, as they call it-- or, um, we get them hospitalized or get them into counseling. People who have just retired come here kind of lost-- what to do with their time-- and especially if they've been active people, um...in their work life. And so then we find good volunteers in those people, and they're able to use their skills and then help them change roles in that way.

Loss of roles and relationships can occur at any age, but, as dr. Robert atchley explains, coping with these losses becomes more difficult as one grows older. As you get older, people experience the death of friends and acquaintances, and it makes a lot of difference how old a person is when this happens. If a person in their 70s loses a friend, they're much more likely to replace that friend than if they're in their late 80s. Part of this is energy. It takes energy to develop a new friend, particularly a close friend, somebody that you want to develop this self-disclosure and intimacy and spending time with. It takes investment of time and energy to develop a new friend. People in their late 80s, early 90s don't have the energy to spend that people do who are in their 60s. That's a very important aspect of role loss. If you're thinking about how people adapt to it, the answer is, it depends. But other people have more success adjusting to loss.

Mollie pier had a fulfilling marriage, but when she became widowed, she discovered some satisfying truths about herself. So many things that people place negative emphasis on can be turned around and be made positive. I know that, uh, widows often cry about their loneliness, about being alone. Well, it's true. It's better to have a companion, but if you don't have, you can turn that loneliness into a great sense of freedom, ability to think for yourself, independence, coming and going, doing as you please without being accountable to somebody else. I feel that, um... I may be alone, but i'm never really lonely. I find the telephone to be a very good friend. When i need to talk, there are friends i can call and have a conversation with. That makes me feel better. Other times, i wish the phone doesn't ring because i want the silence. I want the peacefulness of being by myself with my own thoughts. Since i've been widowed, i've managed to successfully build up enough of my own self-esteem so that i enjoy my own company.

Future roles

One of the most positive aspects of aging is the chance to develop new and uniquely personal roles and relationships after years of family, work, and community responsibilities. Blanche woodbury explains what joining a senior center means to her. This is one of the very best things that's ever happened to me because i used to be able to knit, oh, about 14, 15 pairs of mittens for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I crocheted lace for pillowcases for christmas and all that. I can't see fine print anymore. I'm sitting home alone. What am i going to do? Somebody said, "why don't you come down and try the, you know, the...drop in and the senior center?" "well, yeah, i'll try it." it's the best thing that ever happened to me. I come down every day but saturday and sunday, and they don't open then, or i'd be right here. Yeah, it's really beautiful. We have nice dinners here. A van brings us down, brings us to our door. The driver knows i can't see, and he gets me right on the sidewalk. On monday morning, a very dear friend of mine can play all the old songs that we used to love. She don't have music. I don't know how she does it, but she plays away. We all go over there and sing all the old songs. I try to make everybody my friend because i like everybody. I don't know their names or anything, but i speak to everybody here as if these were old friends. I don't know half their names. You know, there's a man sits over there, and he always asks me, "how's my little girl?" that's me. I feel kind of, you know, funny about it, but he does it, you know. Everything...and wants to know how i am and all of that. So i-i think i'm pretty darn lucky. That's about all i can say, really.

One of our ex-presidents was a person who was not well-liked as president, but when he stepped down, he became the most hospitable person in the world-- walked through campus talking with kids. "my name is mcginley. I'm named after that building." he'd talk to a young woman-- "you're writing a thing on advertising in playboy? I'd like to read that." when i came to fordham, he welcomed me with enthusiasm. By the time he died, larry was one who was... Received with a great deal of enthusiasm by the whole community. People didn't mind helping him in his frailty because he was such a hospitable person. So we have to create some new images about growing old, and i think they're about being more interior and in self-possession of oneself.

After raising a family and putting their children through college, leo and lillian salazar took advantage of their new freedom, and they both became students in their later years. I was 64 when i started back to school. I was in class with kids 18-25 years old and a sprinkling of 30s, and, uh, they all wondered... What the heck i'm doing there, and--and, uh, i was kind of nervous but, uh, fared pretty well, and, uh, at the end of the semester, they all knew me well and called me leo. I told them, "look, don't call me mister. "we're all peers. Call me leo. "if you want to outside of class, o.k., but right now, we're all students." i got along with them very well. When i took physical education courses-- yoga and stretch and all that-- it was even better. So, i got to be known pretty well. In fact, i was elected graduate, uh, senator for--for the, uh, you know, to run the school government. [lillian] the university president knows him and loves him. He comes over and pats him on the back. "old buddy, leo. How are you, old buddy?" i got to know people, staff people. It's been real good for me. I'm doing just like everyone else. I mean, not everyone else, necessarily. I mean the older adults. "i always wanted to do this but didn't have time," or "i had work." now we can do it. Lots of people go back and go into art, but there's other things. [lillian] you did well in art. He may turn out to be grandma moses. Not grandma, but anyway, i got my bachelor's degree when i was 68. I took the easiest path because i'm fluent in spanish, which wasn't my first language, but english and spanish were like a first language together. I got it in hispanic studies, and, uh, so right now i'm working on, uh, credential in, uh, in, uh, gerontology, and i probably will wind up with a master's in art. I have plans, so i'm not ready to go yet. I have a lot of things to do. Leo, at age 74, has gone on to receive his credential.

Today, older adults are breaking myths and stereotypes and carving out distinctive roles for themselves. Political scientist dr. Fernando torres-gil sees the need for future elders to regain their traditional community leadership roles. I'd like to argue that it is time for older persons to regain and reestablish their traditional political role as we have known it for the recorded history of mankind. A political role, a traditional political role, where the elders of the tribe, the elders of ancient civilizations, the elders of the emerging nation states of this, uh, of the last several centuries, provided the political, economic, and social leadership not for themselves as older persons, but provided it for their entire communities. It was upon them that the younger members in the economic classes looked to for insights and for leadership.

It's only been in the last 30-40 years where that traditional political leadership that older persons have provided for their entire communities have been circumvented by our emphasis on youth. And our youth-orientation in the last 20, 30 years has, in a sense, uh, put the elders on the side as a political force, which is why they created the political organizations in the last 20 years-- to try to regain some measure of political credibility and respect. Now that they have it through force of numbers, it's time for them to once again reestablish that traditional role where they will take an interest in those issues, whether it's housing, transportation, health care, not just for themselves, but for all members of society.

Society is slowly beginning to recognize old age as a long and potentially valuable period of life. With this new recognition of old age, some traditional roles of older adults are being broadened and redefined. To me, grandparenthood is the great undiscovered role in modern industrialized societies. I think we'll hear a lot more about the functions of grandparenthood in the 21st century. Most grandparents in american society are probably more often in jogging suits than they are in rocking chairs. And what we have had emerge in the 20th century is grandparents in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who are very active, very much still preoccupied with the roles of middle age and still very much interested in their grandchildren.

In the 21st century, people who live to become great-grandparents will spend as long in the great-grandparent role as their own grandparents spent in the grandparent role in the 20th century. So what we're doing is adding a whole social role, that of the great-grandparent, on top of the undefined role of the grandparent. That's something that i think is really exciting. We've got to develop a greater sense of older people morally and ethically. And really it comes from within older people to do it. And we have some role models. I suggest, and this is absolutely nonpolitical, but perhaps one of the most effective role models of the third age are the carters-- jimmy and rosalynn-- who, again, are living their postpresidential period at an extraordinary fashion of service to the community, whether it be with habitat-- actually going out there and building houses-- or whether it be the mediation program that he's involved at the carter center, or whether he's traveling in every part of the world where there's trouble and speaking courageously in a way in which it's nonpolitical. What a marvelous example of the way in which to live out one's life with social significance and with a kind of fearlessness. We need more people like that who see and behave in this manner.

mollie pier took on a pioneering role when she joined a senior exchange program between the united states and japan. I developed friendships that are unbelievable in their warmth and their caring and their generosity. And i found in my dealings with the japanese people, although each family i stayed with was different, that despite the differences in our races, religions, backgrounds, cultures, customs, underneath, we're all very much the same. We all want peace in the world. We want good educations for our children. We want good futures for them, and i think we agree that perhaps the only way we'll achieve this isn't through our politicians or our heads of state, but through the same kind of one-to-one, person-to-person relationship that we develop.

With lower birth rates, there may not be enough young people entering the work force. Shortages may become more acute in the future. Older people may go back to work if they can find jobs that meet their needs and use their abilities. Leo salazar didn't wait for someone to create a new role for him. He kept his eyes open and saw opportunity. I went to see dr. Rose about my eyes, and, uh, while i was sitting in his waiting room, i saw a lot of people stirring around, asking questions. There was a lot of hispanic people there, and i spoke to them in english and in spanish, and i saw that they were all worried about what's going to happen-- is it going to hurt or something. So, uh...well, i was worried about that, too, but not to that degree. So when i got through seeing the doctor, i-i told him, "you know, dr. Rose, you need me around here." and he said, "what for?" i said, "you ought to hire me "because i see these people are nervous here, "and i think i can, you know, tame them a little bit, talk to them, and reassure them." and he--it was something new for him. He hadn't thought about it. He said, "well, i don't know." but it wasn't two or three days later that he called to talk to me. The first thing you know, i had a job. He pays me. What he does is he pays me, uh, by the hour, whatever hours i put in. It's not a big thing, but it's all right. It's a lot better than minimum wage, i'll tell you that. So it isn't just the roles that we make for people. We have to have older people who make roles for themselves.

The hero of the senior movement in the last 10 years has been maggie kuhn. Again, enthusiastic and being involved with intergenerational issues. We need lots more maggie kuhns, lots more people of that sort. I think that's where we're going to grow. We also need people like charley and elizabeth fahey who take care of neighborhood kids. If you said, "you're doing something good," they wouldn't know what you're talking about. We have to try to make good things happen.

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