How many of us are 80?

[Ted Calver]

Happened last week. I feel tingly all over.

[Ronald Blue]

Happy birthday Rick. (belated) I'm impressed with all of you that have hit that mark and more. I only turned 65 this year but I have been retired for almost a year. However I seem busier now than when working. Anyway I hope I'm also blessed to see that age in person. Dad was 3 weeks shy of 90 when he passed. Covid took a run at me a couple years ago but besides that I have no major issues. Carry on and keep sharing your wisdom.

[Bill George]

I will turn the 80 next year and its important to keep the brain active and I am in my shop a lot. I see lots of folks just sitting with no hobbies, no interests and bingo I see their OB published. I have a childhood friend the same way.... he tells me Your to old for that, as he sits in a retirement home waiting for God. Another friend won't buy anything for his shop, even basic things. Cost is too much!! His only child has more money than he ever made and does not need his... but he hires work done, even painting???

[dennis thompson]

I’ll be 80 in 13 months. I remain pretty active, I live at the shore so I walk 2.5 miles on the boardwalk along the Atlantic Ocean each day, can’t beat that for exercise. I spend about 3-4 hours in my shop each day. Still cut my own lawn but I have to admit I’m getting tired of that.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Any advice from you octogenarians as far as woodworking into the golden years? I’m still young and already have pain in my thumb and elbow that won’t go away. I hope to be woodworking until the end- and that the end isn’t too soon! (I mean, technically getting killed in a table saw accident would be “woodworking until the end,” but that isn’t what I meant!)

[Rick Potter]

I can give you one common piece of advice.

Do not try to lift more than you know you should, especially when in an awkward position. You may think a tweak will be fine in a few days, but it will come back to bite you. Kind of like sports injuries that catch up with football pro's.

I look back at my first back tweak when I was in my early 20's. I was a fireman for almost 35 years, and about 1966 we had to lift a 500# woman out of a bath tub. Being the youngest guy on the crew, I got to stand on the edges of the wet tub, straddling the woman and pulling on her hands while others tried to find purchase elsewhere. An interesting problem....weight, suction, finding a bone you could pull on in all that fat, balance, and traction. This kind of stuff is not taught at school.

Anyway, we got her out without me falling on her, and the next morning I hurt, and that was my first of many, many back injuries, which bother me more each year.

So, the moral to this little tale is to not overdo it when you know you shouldn't.

PS: Believe it or not, this was not the only time this particular situation happened. I have lots of stories of daring do, but the ones that hurt me were usually pedestrian.

[Alan Rutherford]

...Do not try to lift more than you know you should...

When I was younger (late 70's) I was kinda proud of my ability to sling a 50-pound bag of chicken feed over my shoulder and walk it up to the chicken coop, but there were weeks or months when I could only get around with a cane, and of course didn't sling any 50-pound bags. I gave up showing off 3-4 years ago and haven't seen the cane since.

[Tim Janssen]

Hello kids,

I'm 92, still working wood in my basement shop and enjoying it as well.
Cheers!

Tim.

Happy birthday Mr Potter.

[Dave Zellers]

Hello kids,

I'm 92, still working wood in my basement shop and enjoying it as well.
Cheers!

I love it! You are my new inspiration. I'm only 70. I think I will begin telling myself that every day- "You are only 70..."

Awesome post! Thanks.

But I'm pretty sure my right shoulder is 85.

[Frederick Skelly]

You guys are all inspiring to me, especially Mr. Janssen.
80 still looks a long way off for me but it is reassuring to see (read?) examples of active people like this. Some of my relatives fell into the "sofa trap" and just rotted away.

Stay well and strong!
Fred

[Anuj Prateek]

Sorry only 47, but it's wonderful to know that there are a number of people still enjoying the craft as they have aged. It's one of my concerns as I age, and it sounds like the time and money I've invested in this hobby are less likely to be squander if I'm lucky enough to join such an august assembly.

+1
I am close to 40. I sometimes wonder as well, till what age will I be able to do woodworking. Wonderful to see this thread.

[Rick Potter]

Tim, you're my new hero. I hope to be doing stuff until the end too. Today the wife had to hold my ladder as I installed my new height extension on a big shelving unit in the shop. Two more to go.

I am trying to be a little safer so I tied off the top of the ladder so it couldn't slip. Gotta keep adjusting.

[Tim Janssen]

Tim, you're my new hero. I hope to be doing stuff until the end too. Today the wife had to hold my ladder as I installed my new height extension on a big shelving unit in the shop. Two more to go.
I am trying to be a little safer so I tied off the top of the ladder so it couldn't slip. Gotta keep adjusting.

No two ways about it! I'm certainly not as surefooted as I was 20, 30 years ago. I now hold onto the railing if I use the stairs.
Be safe!

[Ronnie Hurst]

Not there yet, but Lord willing. I enjoy watching the reaction of young people when I tell them that I've personally talked with a man who was born in the 1880's. I was a kid in the 60's and an old man lived down the road. He had a green house and grew roses. One day I was "helping" him work, I got bored and asked, "are we done yet?". He responded, "hamburgers get done, people get finished". For some reason I've always remembered that comment.

[Steve Demuth]

82.

Here's something to think about: If you turned 81 today, you have been alive for 1/3 of the time since October, 1776. If you are 81 and a few months or older, you've seen over 1/3 of the history of this country. Only one lifetime earlier takes you back to before the start of the Civil War. That's perspective.

"I don't know everything, but I know more than anybody younger than I am."

When my old man passed away in 2019 at age 97, I commented to a couple of people at his funeral that he lived 2/3 of the European settlement in the county where he was born and lived. Got a couple of skeptical looks and replies, but it's true - the county's first European settlers overwintered the winter of 1870-71. My Dad showed up on the scene 50 years later, in 1922, and then lived within a mile and a half of where he was born for the next 95 years, before moving 3 miles further away when he finally left the farm at age 95.

In a way, he won't be replaced - the county's population peaked in 1950, and is now back down to what it was in the 1900 census. Over 20% of the population is over 65.