I Thought I Was the Kid

Abstract

This essay uses the divergent experiences of the author, a middle-aged woman, at her home in Atlantic Canada and while visiting Florida to discuss how a woman learns to be old through interaction with others. It describes how her experiences in retirement-community laden south Florida, where she was 25 years younger than everyone else, made the better treatment that younger people receive obvious to her in a new way. At the same time she learned that the really old people are ignored in ways that are hard to overlook.