Senior Citizens

We were the youngest people to live in Rochdale, the kids, but there was a large, vibrant, older generation of people who also lived in the development.

They had many things to do in the development, groups set up for them, and each section had their "older" group, many of whom sat on the benches and held court with one another.

I generally remember the group that lived in Section 3, Building 9, 10, 11, and 12. (Thanks to Arnie Epstein for the photo.)

They were my grandparents' age, probably even older, and they were from an earlier generation, many of whom were born in the previous century, and part of a generation that went through World Wars I and II, Korea and the Depression.

They were honed on a different lifestyle, and many of them did not understand us kids.

It was a real generation gap between many older and many younger people there; they didn't understand us, and we didn't understand them.

To some of them, we were just juvenile troublemakers who were seemingly living off the spoils of their labor.

They yelled at us for going on the grass, for playing our transistor radios too loud, and for generally running amuck in this new development.

We kind of knew that they didn't like us, and we called them "Old Fogies."

Heaven knows what they called us, but I don't think it was anything very nice.

And then there was a group that was the same age as the others, but much more progressive.

They saw us for what we were--young kids--and treated us with the utmost of respect, and we gave it back to them.

Even though there were many years of age difference, we kind of saw eye-to-eye with each other.

Many of them had grandchildren living in the same development, and I think that closeness with their grandkids allowed them to think a little differently than those who didn't have grandchildren or at least, didn't have grandchildren living in Rochdale at the time.

One of my friends had his grandparents living in Rochdale very close to his family at the time, and they were very, very nice people.

His grandfather always had a smile for us, and it really was from ear to ear.

Seeing his grandparents reminded me of my grandparents, one set of whom lived in Brooklyn and the other living in another part of Queens.

Today, many of us Rochdale kids are grandparents ourselves (not me, not yet anyway), and I wonder how our relationship with the older citizens of Rochdale shapes our relationship with young kids today?

That is something to talk about at the upcoming Reunion on Oct. 5, and yes, there will be several grandparents there to share your stories with.

And "Old Fogies" they are not!