BY SUE MacDONALD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[pendleton]](/editions/1998/11/11/pendleton_180x116.jpg)
Lou Ella Pendleton, 91, bowls three times a week.
(Dick Swaim photo)
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At 77, U.S. Sen. John Glenn grabbed national headlines as he shot into space, let himself be a human guinea pig and returned safely to earth Saturday.
Lou Ella Pendleton was about that old when she took up bowling. Today, the 91-year-old Lockland woman is still smokin' the pins twice a week at Northwest Lanes in Fairfield and weekly at Madison Bowl.
Mr. Glenn and Mrs. Pendleton - a national hero and a local bowling champ - represent a trend that aging experts have been tracking for nearly a decade: a population that's growing progressively older, living longer and not slowing down.
The graying population is putting to rest some of the long-held myths about getting older - that health worsens, memory fails and life eases to a halt. In fact, statistics show that only a minority of people 65 and older are frail or helpless; most are thriving into old age.
It's a phenomenon described by physician Dr. John Rowe and psychologist Dr. Robert L. Kahn in Successful Aging (Pantheon; $24.95) as "perhaps the most dramatic change in American society in this century."
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Bob Steinman, 72, and Evelyn Steinman, 69, tutor youngsters in reading.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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At no time in U.S. history have older people been increasing faster as a segment of the population than younger members of society. Better health care, increased self-help and slowing birth rates mean that those considered "old old" (75 and older) are now the fastest-growing segment of the population, according to Dr. Rowe and R. Kahn.
"People are living longer and people are living healthier," agrees Debra Stanley, assistant to the director of Scripps Gerontology Foundation at Miami University. "When the retirement age was adopted in 1935, people were only living until age 62 or 65, so we didn't expect anybody to live longer than that.
"Today we have people living 20-30 years into retirement - sometimes longer than their work histories," she says.
Indeed, many Tristaters routinely debunk the myths that life stops slowing at 65 (or 75, 85, even 95). Among the myths and the people behind the phenomenon:
MYTH: People slow down as they age
"Keep busy and work hard," is the advice from Sara Marvin, 95 - "and a half" - of Montgomery, who teaches four piano students as part of a 70-year career as a music teacher in Cincinnati and Hamilton.
Quite simply, she hasn't yet found a reason to say no to a request for music lessons. At 65, the typical age of retirement, she was still teaching piano and accordion to about 350 students at her music schools.
And it's her name on the Sara Marvin Foundation for the Performing Arts that financially supports Xavier University's Piano and Guitar Series, which she attends regularly.
Her key to longevity?
"I've been very, very busy all my life." she says from her comfortable apartment at Seasons Retirement Community in Montgomery. "Sometimes I have three or four things going all the time, each day."
Every morning, she does a few exercises and stretches to keep her body limber. She tries to walk a little bit every day. She has regular get-togethers with friends.
Does she take vitamins to keep going? "About one a month," she says with a smile. "I'm too busy to take them."
MYTH: Old people aren't as physically active
Don't tell that to Mrs. Pendleton, who holds five Ohio gold medals and a national silver medal in Senior Olympics bowling.
"I've got a gold medal in horse shoes, too," jokes the tiny woman, "but only because I was the oldest one in the competition. My friends are young and they keep me young. I don't have many 90-year-old friends."
In 1977, she retired after a 27-year career as a first-grade teacher and reading specialist at Washburn Elementary School in the West End. "The walls come in on me if I don't get up and do something," she says, which explains her thrice-weekly bowling sessions (average score: 125) and thrice-weekly aquatics exercise class - gentle aerobics done in a warm-water pool - at St. Clare Center in Wyoming.
Poor circulation in her legs and occasional leg pain slow her down, but not enough to make her stay home.
"I don't go as strong as I used to. But from the waist up," she says, "I'm very healthy."
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AMERICA'S AGING, BY THE NUMBERS
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In 1994, one-eighth of the U.S. population was 65 or older. Among the elderly, 18.7 million were 65-74, 11 million were 75-84 and 3.5 million were 85 or older.
From 1990 to 1994, the elderly population increased 11-fold, compared with a threefold increase for the population under 65.
The ratio of elderly people (over 65) to those of working age (20-64 years) will nearly double between 1990 and 2050.
By 2010, people 50-75 will make up one-third of the total U.S. population, up from one-fifth in 1985.
Five percent of older people live in nursing homes, a number that's fallen steadily over the last decade.
75 percent of people 65-74 rate their health good to excellent; 66 percent of people 75 and older rate their health good to excellent.
Among people over 55, more than 40 percent report at least 1,500 hours of productive activity during the year.
In 1982, about 32,000 Americans were centenarians - 100 years or older. In 1998, about 61,000 people are 100 and older (4 of 5 are women), and by the year 2050, about 600,000 Americans will live that long.
Each year since 1900, life expectancy has gained an average 110 days a year, compared with 3 days a year gained in each of the previous 1,900 years.
More than 70 percent of people live to be 65, the traditional age of retirement, three times more than in 1900.
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MYTH: To be old is to be sick
Of Americans in the 75-to-84 age bracket, 73 percent reported no disability in 1994.
Eleanor Sanger, 83, of Finneytown could have let knee-replacement surgery last year slow her down, but she made it through the surgery, returned to her church and social groups and found a sidelight along the way.
This year, she started a home business selling medical magnet products because of the pain relief and increased energy she experienced after using them to recuperate.
"Now that I've gotten into this magnetic thing, I'm just having a barrel of fun with it," says Mrs. Sanger, a widow since 1973 and former executive secretary at several Cincinnati companies. She credits a strong network of friends and a deep religious faith for her continued energy and health.
"I really think that people who have faith or have a faith, it gives them something to hold onto," she says. "A lot of people say, 'Oh, that's a crutch.' If you want to look at it that way, it is.
"But if you feel the love of God coming into you, you can pass that on to the next person. And that means a lot."
MYTH: The mind goes as you age
"One of the things that is important to me is keeping my mind active," says 71-year-old George Dershimer of Montgomery. He retired from Procter & Gamble in 1984, ran his own consulting business for 11 years and in 1995 founded the Executive Service Corps, an agency through which retired managers and professionals volunteer their services to non-profit organizations.
He also is learning to play piano, sings in the choir and serves on several committees at St. John's Unitarian Church in Clifton.
In addition, he is taking a creative writing class at the Institute for Learning in Retirement at the University of Cincinnati and walks at least 30 minutes a day after doing morning back stretches.
"I think people need to look at what they enjoy doing in life or what has been important in their past and give themselves new opportunities to do whatever it is - writing, or being with people, or traveling - and not just close themselves off," he says.
MYTH: Old people don't pull their weight.
Bob and Eveyln Steinman of Amberley Village don't have to be at this hallway table at Chase Elementary School in Northside helping second-graders learn to read.
They want to be here.
Since February 1997, they have been volunteering weekly in a program called STARS - Seniors Teaching and Reaching Students. "We've been very active in community work since our youth," says Evelyn, 69, who retired in 1994 with her husband, 72, from their business partnership.
"It's not just busy work. It has to be meaningful, not just for us but for other people."
Among their current activities:
- They deliver Meals on Wheels.
- They are active with Retired Seniors Volunteer Program and volunteer at Temple Sholom in Amberley Village.
- John teaches a computer class at Sycamore Senior Center.
"I think it's crazy to retire and just sit and watch the tube and go fishing," he says. "You have to do other things, and if you've got your health, you've got everything."
As the Baby Boomer generation joins the ranks of the retired, the dynamics of aging is expected to change even more as research continues. Studies already show, for example, that age is not a hindrance to learning or performance. Older people can learn new things and do them well. In one experiment, older people who had declined in inductive reasoning and spatial orientation made significant and long-lasting improvement after five training sessions.
Doctors also are finding that nature can be remarkably forgiving. The risk of heart disease starts falling almost as soon as people quit smoking - regardless of age. The same positive changes are true for obesity, blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol and decreased physical functioning.
Exercise among people in their 90s leads to muscle mass gain, healthier bones, fewer balance problems and increased stamina.
What aging experts don't know is how well the current crop of baby boomers will age, compared to those who are considered elderly in the 1990s. Will all that knowledge about good health translate into tangible benefits?
Co-authors Dr. Rowe and Dr. Kahn found that lifestyle choices - what people eat, how they live, how many friends they have, how much they exercise - have far more impact on aging than heredity and genetics, once thought to be the determining factor for growing old.
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