AARP Gathering of 'My People’ was Empowering
By: Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2007-10-10 13:10:00-04:00
by Sondra L. Shapiro, The Fifty Plus Advocate
My pedometer was ticking away as I trekked from seminar to exhibit. It was slow going since the hallways were jammed with other like-minded adults rushing to the next lecture at the recent AARP Life@50+ National Event & Expo.
Suddenly, my friend Deb threw up her hands in excitement and pronounced, "These are our people."
Hmm, that hadn't crossed my mind before, but … yes. that had to be why I felt so carefree, so at home. So happy. It reminded me of a trip I took to Israel in 1987. I was walking down Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem with some friends when I thought, "Wow, I'm in a Jewish state, among my own people."
I was so used to living in our youth-obsessed culture that I hardly recognized the sense of freedom and belonging I felt from the moment I had first stepped foot in the Convention & Exhibition Center, surrounded by more than 27,000 of my peers.
I had rationalized that my job as a journalist was my reason for attending, but when Deb made that rather dramatic proclamation, it all clicked.
When I turned 50 a few years ago and received my invitation from AARP, I thought the envelope came to the wrong person. Yet, there was my name. As more of my friends began receiving similar invites, they all had the same reaction. We baby boomers have delusional tendencies when it comes to age.
Yet, miracle of miracles, when I opened my eyes and looked around, a lot of the attendees appeared younger than I had expected. Sure enough, 40 percent who registered for the three-day event were under 60. The average age of all attendees was 62.
We may be blissfully naïve when it comes to the nitty-gritty of aging, yet when it has to do with conscious gaps in knowledge, we will go to the ends of the Earth to find answers. For me, the trip was a mere 40-minute drive to Boston's waterfront.
Whether the topic was lifestyle, health, fitness, financial security, caregiving or community service, lectures were crammed with individuals eager to learn. Even when I arrived a half-hour early, often the rooms were already filled to capacity. Sure, a lot of the excitement and demand surrounded appearances by notables such as actor/comedian Bob Newhart, makeup entrepreneur Bobbi Brown or mother-daughter duo Melissa and Joan Rivers. But even a caregiver roundtable discussion being filmed for a PBS/AARP series was filled to capacity, showing how desperate we are to learn about a topic whose particulars confound even those of us who work in applicable fields.
The choices were all so enticing that it was difficult to decide between offerings scheduled at the same time. Such was the case in choosing between a session discussing work that matters in the second half of life or "AARP Celebrates Movies for Grown-Ups," hosted by actor Brian Dennehy.
Naturally, the event was nirvana for the star-struck. So many famous people were in town for the occasion, I should have brought an autograph book: Michael and Kirk Douglas, Bill Russell, Lily Tomlin, Whoopi Goldberg, Maya Angelou, those Rivers girls.
Deb and I wanted to make a 7:30 a.m. exercise class with LL Cool J, but we just didn't have enough energy to spare after the first day's hectic schedule, which was capped by a Tony Bennett concert. Yet, plenty of attendees juggled the same hectic schedule and still managed to boogie and party the night away at the after-hours AARP Studio 50+ Nightclubs.
I heard the next day that those venues were packed tight with rowdy revelers.
The exhibit hall, with more than 400 companies and nonprofits, was a highlight. Sure, there were great freebies, like that pedometer that I immediately attached to my belt, but I had a sense of pride that we are being taken very seriously as aging consumers by companies selling travel, beauty, health, fitness, technology, automobiles and finance. It was pretty cool to check out the technology pavilion, which featured an interactive Nintendo Wii, especially since the inclusion of the exhibit was a nod to our technological worthiness. Or to view Toyota's Highway to the Future: Mobile Hybrid Experience. There was even a NASCAR simulator, sponsored by AARP Driver Safety.
When Toyota, Genworth Financial, Nintendo, Home Depot and Microsoft, to name a few companies, are seen coveting us as consumers, it's not a stretch to feel better about ourselves.
Now, back to those freebies: The cloth bags, which many of the exhibitors were handing out, were appreciated by us boomers attempting to live with more environmental awareness. Armed with my new sense of consumer power, I've been toting AARP's logo through supermarket checkouts with pride.
Yes, Life@50+ was empowering. Removed from the day-to-day prejudices that my peers and I endure made me feel more secure with myself and less inclined to fall for the party line that we are inconsequential to the marketplace or society. Certainly, the emphasis the event placed on community service reminded us we have a lot to give.
As AARP CEO Bill Novelli said, "Life@50+ is all about celebrating life and recognizing that it just gets better."
Or, as LL Cool J was said to proclaim during his early-morning workout class: "Dreams don't have deadlines."
Well. I'm certainly looking forward to the future—among "my people."
Sondra Shapiro is the executive editor and assistant publisher of the Fifty Plus Advocate, the statewide mature market newspaper.
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