New Seniors

How old were you when you learned to ride a two-wheeler? I was about seven or eight when I mastered riding the rather small second-hand bike my dad got for me. It had no extras, not even a chain guard, and was repainted in a distinctive Chinese red. Aside from the color, the bike was pretty unremarkable by most standards, but it soon became the means for expanding my world.

Remember when snow was still around in grimy shrinking mounds, crocus and other bulbs popped their heads through the dormant soil and the ground felt like mush when you walked on it? That’s when the kids in my neighborhood went to the basement and got their baseball gloves and balls out of winter hibernation, because we knew spring was finally here.

What New Senior can forget being given the distinction of licking and pasting a kitchen drawer full of S&H Green Stamps into the collection books so Mom could go to the redemption center and turn them in for merchandise rewards? It could have been Top Value, Triple S, Plaid or Blue Chip stamps. For many years, these bonus stamp programs played a big part in determining where American families shopped.

I lived over a mile from the elementary school I attended from kindergarten through the eighth grade. During the ‘40s folks called it grammar school. Those years represented a happy and innocent time of my life, as I suspect they did for most pre-boomers.

Before Rock and Roll exploded on the scene in the mid-50s, there had been periods when novelty and fad dances were the rage. But Rock was accompanied by a plethora of songs that had a dance connected with them. Can you remember dancing to these musical numbers?

Old fashioned TVs, Yellow Pages, land-line telephones and film cameras are a few things that come to mind. Changes are happening faster than at any time in history, thanks to the age of technology. Businesses are looking for opportunities to cause a sea change in the products and services we use. Younger Americans embrace this progress, but older consumers feel they are losing old friends.

I was born in 1936, so I don’t remember much until after the war broke out, except for the warm comfortable feelings of being part of a loving home. Looking back, I guess there were things I missed having due to the rationing and general scarcity of goods during WWII, but I never felt without and have fond memories of those times.

While doing research on the Internet, I came across an article which indicated many brands that were favorites in the mid-1900s are re-inventing, re-positioning and, in some cases, re-introducing these once top-sellers in an attempt to entice a new generation of consumers to buy their products. In the meantime, they seem to be overlooking the people who constituted their original customer base: New Seniors.

Functionally, diving a car is to get from one place to another. When New Seniors were young it meant freedom. As we grew older, having a fancy vehicle brought prestige with it. Then driving became a necessity in order to transport the kids from one event to another. In later years convenience gave way to comfort. And, in time, driving a car reverted back to getting from one place to another. So, what are people saying about driving today?

The first ballpoint pen was sold in the United States in late1945. It was called the Reynolds Rocket and sold for about $10 when it was unveiled at Gimbel’s department store in New York City before spreading across the country like wildfire. But the script did not unfold as originally written.