Chapter 5, Part 7 - The Activities

Finally, there’s the ‘left-out group’ – those people who are not involved in any of the above so-called ‘serious’ activities. Sure, they may participate in minor clubs such as Spanish, piano, or chess, but they don’t belong to a major group. Mom is a part of this left-out group, as is Flo’s husband, Irv (playing cards is not considered a ‘serious’ club). Some of these folks started ‘The Sixties Club’ three years ago – not the 1960’s, but a group for people in their sixties. When started, the founders of the club made it open only to residents who were 69 or younger. The idea of the club is to do activities when the others are playing golf, tennis, Mah Jongg, or aerobics. For example, they hire buses to take them to the local museums, they go on excursions to local wildlife preserves, or they go shopping at local shopping malls. The only problem with this group is that some of the members who were in their sixties when they joined are now in their seventies, which, according to group by-laws, makes them ineligible for club membership any longer.

When the organizers of the club realized they’d be losing all of their members within 10 years, including themselves, they changed the name of the group to the ‘Young in Spirit’ club. The new by-laws state that once you are a member you can never be kicked out because of your age. The founders concluded that even with new arrivals joining their ranks, the group would never get too big; they figured they would ultimately lose members the natural way.