How Old is Old?

Is this like cheating to get into the Special Olympics?

After years of trying to fake being older to be able to drink, there are years of faking being younger to be attractive, then there is a brief interval of trying to be older in years to get discounts.

The auto companies are complaining about people retiring too young and living too long.

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http://www.freep.com/news/locoak/old12e_20051112.htm

When is a senior a senior?
Oakland County communities are at odds over who is old enough to use exercise facilities at center

November 12, 2005

BY CECILIA OLECKFREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Hey -- what are those 50-year-olds doing at the senior citizen center?

You're a senior when you are ...
50
• The Royal Oak Senior Activities serves people age 50 and up.
55
• You can get $2 to $5 off adult ticket prices at the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts, 44575 Garfield Road, Clinton Township, depending on the show.
• Clinton Township Senior Center, 40700 Romeo Plank Road, Clinton Township, serves people 55 and up.
60
• Leon's Family Dining Restaurant, 23830 Michigan Ave., Dearborn, takes 10% off meals.
• Age minimum for various programs offered by Wayne County Senior Citizens' Services and Macomb County Senior Citizens' Services.
62
• The Motown Historical Museum, 2648 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit, lops $1 off the adult ticket price of $8.
65
• You pay just $12 for an all-season deer hunting license, compared with $30 for others.

CECILIA OLECK In Rochester, they're lifting weights, power walking and swimming laps.
But should they be?
In a dispute sure to resonate across metro Detroit, three Oakland County communities are duking it out in court over who's old enough to use an $18-million senior citizen center funded primarily by taxpayers in Rochester, Rochester Hills and Oakland Township.

Sometimes calling them junior seniors, the center allows 50- to 59-year-olds to use its workout facilities alongside those 60 and up.

That's fine with Rochester Hills, but Rochester and Oakland Township say 60 should be the cutoff. It'll be up to Oakland Circuit Judge Denise Langford Morris to sort it out.

One thing is clear: "Old age isn't what it used to be -- thank God," said Linda Raschke, 54, an on-call firefighter and a Rochester Hills councilwoman.

"My kids keep telling me to act my age. I say, 'I'm trying.' "

Like the 50-somethings in Oakland County, younger people are treading on senior turf all over southeast Michigan.

"Every program has their own definition," said Jim McGuire, director of planning and advocacy for the Area Agency on Aging 1B, which serves seniors in six southeast Michigan counties, including Oakland and Macomb. "In some ways, seniors are synonymous with retirees ... but there's no rule."