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I RECEIVED a complaint from a friend exactly my age over my recent use of the term “senior citizen” to describe myself. She deplores the term—who doesn’t?—and wondered if I might come up with something, “a word or phrase that speaks to our knowledge, experiences and adventures. A good word, a great word, multiple syllables, maybe with an ae or ??? I respectfully assign this important task to you.”
While I thank Judy for her vote of confidence, the sad truth is that the concept of growing old is not exactly a crowd-pleaser and never will be. Still, I’m unable to stop thinking about her request and have been playing around with some words to describe all those people of my generation who remember Uncle Miltie, Nik-L-Nips, circle pins and Justine & Bob. (Personally I preferred Kenny & Arlene.) All of them are preferable to the implied stodginess of “senior citizen.”
rock star
hep cat
main ingredient
pack leader
golden oldie
determinator
wise owl
chuckberry
strong survivor
groundbreaker
bandstander
early adopter
sunny stalwart
stick arounder
crowd pleaser
—Andrea Rouda
Andrea Rouda blogs at The Daily Droid.
How about “early adapter”?
Ha, good!
I’m voting for Early Adopter. That’s what I think whenever I see someone with an aol email address, not, Oh, there’s someone stuck at the dawn of the Inter Age who can’t move on. Early Adopter makes me chuckle (chuckle? Wow, does that date me). Of course, Rock Star would be good too. (And here’s another vote for Kenny and Arlene.)
Okay, who are Kenny and Arlene? Early adopter, yes!