Improbable as it may sound, a 1950s headliner burlesque stripper and a renowned cardiovascular heart surgeon on the threshold of his 100th birthday had much in common.
News out of Las Vegas is that red-haired Tempest Storm, now 80 years old and still famed for her DD bust line, is still peeling discreetly now and then to "Take it off!" hoot and hollers. And the medical world lost one of its iconic heart surgery pioneers with the death last week of Dr. Michael DeBakey at 99, who was still operating in his 80s and active as a consultant in his 90s.
The link between the two? Both still valued work in their old age and, in their own way, were making some sort of contribution rather than wasting away their years.
America has a huge, growing population of such seniors whose varying states of health pose both a national opportunity and a national dilemma.
Life expectancy is increasing. The National Center for Health Statistics estimated in June that Americans on average could expect to live to 78.1 years (many far longer). Moreover, the death rate has dropped several percentage points from previous years.
Living longer means years of potential idle time for seniors who've long ago retired from regular careers. Idleness can breed illness. Although communities large and small have developed organizations eagerly recruiting seniors as volunteers, a greater national effort is needed, not only to make use of skilled manpower to improve communities but also as a preventive medicine tool to keep Americans healthy.
As a group, American seniors still want more out of life than days and days of recreation. They want to feel needed and useful.
Longer lives, unfortunately, also mean more and more permanent care for catastrophic disease. Alzheimer's, for example, has moved up on the list and replaced diabetes as the 6th greatest cause of death in the nation. Nursing care homes nationwide now report some 231,900 residents with Alzheimer's.
And with the average length of stay at 620 days per Alzheimer patient, according to the NCHS survey, this disease is imposing greater costs on the American health system and the national budget.
Sound planning demands that a cure, or at least a stabilizing remedy, be found for Alzheimer's to lessen the lost productivity of seniors and drastically reduce health costs.
One of the great failings of the American consumption society is the acceptance of obsolescence of goodies and gadgets.
Seniors with a lot more life in them need not be shucked off like an old car.
